


Vibing Harry

by Purple Streak (centaury_squill)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Blow Jobs, Frottage, Hand Jobs, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-05-01 08:24:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 34
Words: 37,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5198933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/centaury_squill/pseuds/Purple%20Streak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Cisco meets Harrison Wells from Earth 2, he thinks he's just a dick. But as he gets to know him better, he realises there's more to the guy than first appeared.</p>
<p>Started as a bit of fun to while away the Season 2 midseason break, took on a life of its own and ended up keeping me amused until almost the start of Season 3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Will you quit pretending to stab me in the chest with your hand?" Cisco flounces away, scowling crossly at Harrison.

Harrison grins at him, unrepentant. "It's such fun when you scream like a little girl."

"I do not _so_ scream like a little girl, _Harry_."

"Wanna bet?"

Harrison closes the distance between them in a few quick strides.

Cisco puts up his hand to push him away, but as he makes contact with Harrison's shoulder he's suddenly overcome by a vibe so strong he staggers back, eyes rolling up in his head.

"What's wrong?" Harrison asks, frowning at him in concern. Then his face changes. "Have you been getting vibes off me again?" he demands, grabbing Cisco's arm. "Did you see Jesse? _Did you see my daughter?_ "

Cisco pulls away. "Uh, n-no," he stammers. He's staring at Harrison as if he's never seen him before. "Definitely not your daughter. It was a guy I saw."

"Who?"

Cisco doesn't answer.

Harrison grabs him again. "WHO?!" he yells, right up in Cisco's face.

Cisco's looking at him in a bewildered sort of way. "Uh - is there a Cisco Ramon on Earth-2?" he asks. "Working in your S.T.A.R. Labs maybe?"

Harrison obviously wasn't expecting this. He starts to say something, stops, shakes his head. "I don't know any Cisco Ramon on my world," he says flatly, and pushes Cisco away.

But Cisco has the feeling he's lying. That's what he wants to believe, anyway.

Because otherwise, who is the young guy he just vibed making out with Harrison in the - in _a_ \- S.T.A.R. Labs infirmary? If it's true that there's no Cisco Ramon on Earth-2, then the guy kissing Harry so passionately must be a future vision of - _himself_.

* * *

Cisco doesn't want to think about that vibe. It _couldn't_ have been him kissing Harry. He's not gay. He fancies that barista at Jitters, for fucks sake. He makes a point of avoiding Harry, concentrates on convincing Kendra to go out with him on a date.

And then he almost freaks out with the vibe he gets from her...

But it's okay, things improve, and he's starting to think he may actually have a real girlfriend at last. Until Vandal Savage turns up. Until Kendra turns out to be a reincarnated priestess, and flies away with her reincarnated lover, Hawkman.

"I'm so doomed," Cisco mutters, watching them disappear into the distance.

Life's been kinda hectic these past few days: hiding out in an isolated farmhouse, helping Barry and Oliver take down Vandal Savage, watching Kendra turning into Hawkgirl. With all of that going on, Cisco hasn't given S.T.A.R. Labs, and Harrison Wells, one thought. But now it's time to get back to his day job.

He's still refusing to think about Harry Wells.

* * *

"Hey, Caitlin."

"Hi, Cisco. Sorry to hear about -"

Cisco waves his hand. "Doesn't matter. Forget it. She was way out of my league anyhoo."

He looks around the lab; no sign of Harrison Wells. Maybe he's gone back to Earth-2 after all? This thought, which once would have delighted Cisco, now makes him feel strangely hollow inside.

"Where's Dr Wells?" he blurts out.

"Ah," says Caitlin. "Yes, you won't have heard. He's in the infirmary."

"In the _infirmary_?" To his horror, Cisco feels himself blushing as memories of _that_ vibe replay themselves in his head.

"He's going to be okay," Caitlin reassures him. "But it was touch and go for a while. He got shot."

"Shot?!"

"Yeah, Joe told me about that. My girlfriend Patty shot him."

Cisco turns round; Barry's leaning against the doorframe. He grins ruefully at Cisco and Caitlin. "Guess nobody told her about Harry being from Earth-2," Barry says. "She thought it was - _him_. Eobard Thawne." His face changes as he says that name.

"Well, it wasn't as bad as it might have been," Caitlin tells them. "We - Dr Wells and I - were working on a serum of his to help speedsters gain more speed. And Jay was able to use it to get his speed back temporarily and take the bullet out of Harrison's chest with his hand."

Cisco winces. "Ouch."

"And now he's being a really difficult patient, keeps wanting to get up." Caitlin looks appealingly at Cisco. "Maybe you could convince him to be sensible."

Cisco gives an exaggerated shrug. "I'll _try_."

His heart thundering in his chest, he heads for the infirmary.


	2. Chapter 2

Harrison Wells is propped up against a stack of pillows, his eyes shut, his face pale and strained. Cisco stands by his bed staring down at him. He was a little spooked when Caitlin said Harry was in the infirmary, the combination of Harrison Wellls and the S.T.A.R. Labs infirmary pushing all his buttons. But, he's relieved to see Harrison is naked from the waist up, because in _that_ vibe, he was wearing a black sweater.

At least, he's relieved to start with. But the more he stares at the half-naked Harrison, the more he finds himself thinking, _hey, this guy looks HOT!_

Suddenly Harrison's eyes flicker open. Cisco starts back guiltily.

"Hi," Harrison says, his voice little more than a croak. He clears his throat, rakes his fingers through his hair, leaving it tousled and untidy. "How ya doing, Crisco?"

Cisco gulps, waves his hand at Harrison's bare, bandaged chest, says at random, "Guess now we both know what it's like to have a speedster's fist inside of us."

Harrison's eyebrows shoot up. "What?!"

Cisco realises Harry's laughing, thinks back over what he just said. Crap, this is awful. And now he's blushing again. "Huh. Maybe I should rephrase that." 

"Yeah," Harry gasps. "Maybe you should." He drags himself up against the pillows, flashes Cisco a wicked grin. "I don't know how - _close_ \- you got with your world's Harrison Wells, but I sure wouldn't want Jay Garrick fisting me."

"Inside our _chests_ ," Cisco mutters. "You _know_ I meant inside our -"

"Whatever." Harry waves his hand dismissively. "Your private life is no concern of mine." He flings the sheet aside, tries to swing his legs over the edge of the bed.

"Woah, wait," says Cisco, putting a firm hand on Harry's shoulder and pushing him back. "Caitlin says you need to rest a while longer."

He keeps his hand against Harry's bare shoulder for a long moment, half hoping for, half fearing, another vibe. But nothing comes, and Cisco takes his hand away, wondering why he feels so disappointed.

Harry subsides against the pillows. "O-kay," he says reluctantly. "I'll rest. For now. But only if you bring me something to eat. A can of soda, some cookies, a few crackers. And a piece of cheese, maybe?"

"What, I'm your houseboy now?" mutters Cisco. Then, louder, "I'll see what I can do."

* * *

"Thanks for bringing me a snack, Nabisco."

"You're welcome," Cisco says, slamming the tray down on the table beside Harrison's bed before turning away, grumbling under his breath, "Messing up my name is getting real old, Harry."

He strides back into the main lab, fuming. "You know what, Caitlin? I don't _care_ if Harry gets outa bed before he's ready. His heart can burst right in his chest, for me."

Caitlin raises her eyebrows. Barry swings round from the computer readout he's studying and laughs. "Chill, bro. What's Harry been doing now?"

"Keeps on messing up my name," complains Cisco. "On purpose."

"He's just joking," Caitlin tells him. "Maybe it's a sign of affection?"

Cisco slumps down in front of his computer, moodily rattles the keys. "Can't be. He told me once he doesn't like me." Remembering this is unexpectedly painful, as it wasn't at the time. He didn't like Harry either, back then, but now -? Surely that vibe - that _hot_ vibe - can't have changed how he feels about Harry?

"It probably wasn't even me," Cisco mutters at his monitor . "I bet there _is_ a Cisco Ramon on Earth-2."

Barry hears him. "I guess we all got doppelgangers on Earth-2," he says. "I wonder what mine's like. Or Caitlin's."

"Not everybody has an Earth-2 counterpart," Caitlin says. "Or vice versa. I don't think there's a Jay Garrick on our Earth."

Cisco tunes them out. He needs to figure out how he really feels about Harry Wells. He's so deep in introspection he doesn't notice Barry get up from his workstation and walk towards him.

"Are you okay, Cisco?" Barry asks, punching him lightly on the arm as he walks past.

"Yeah, sure," Cisco says defensively, looking up from his computer screen "Why not?"

"I guess you're still bummed about the whole Hawkgirl thing," Barry says sympathetically.

"I don't wanna talk about it," Cisco says, turning back to his work. But he's shocked to realise that, actually, he hasn't thought about Kendra all day.

"Welp, I'll just check on Harrison," Barry says, heading for the door.

Cisco's up out of his chair before he realises what he's doing. "No need, I'll do that," he says, all but elbowing Barry out of the way.

Behind him, Barry and Caitlin exchange worried glances.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas!

Cisco steps into the infirmary, stops short. Harry is no longer lying on the bed; he's up and dressed - and wearing the black sweater which Cisco could swear is the one he'd glimpsed in the vibe. Or does he just _want_ to think that? Confused, Cisco rubs his aching head.

Harrison glances round. "Whassup?"

Cisco realises he's staring. "Oh, nothing. No, nothing. Nothing at all. I'm good."

Harrison's eyes narrow. "There's _something_ wrong. What is it, some more baggage from that doppelganger of mine?" He smirks. "Did you and him have a daddy kink thing going on? 'Cos I remember how you looked at me when you got me to dress up in that yellow suit and call you _son_."

Cisco feels himself turning red, can't do a thing to stop it. "NO!" he shouts, louder than he intended.

Harrison's smirk intensifies. "Well, that's good, because I don't play those kinda games. But I'm getting a definite sexual vibe from you right now." His face changes; he stares searchingly at Cisco. "Vibe! That's it, isn't it? What _was_ that vibe you got off me this morning? What were we doing? Were you sucking my dick?"

Cisco gulps. "Would you _like_ me to suck your dick?"

He throws it down like a challenge.

Harrison moves closer, his eyes still fixed on Cisco's.

"Not what I asked. Tell me about the vibe you got off me this morning."

He reaches out, grabs Cisco's arm. " _Tell_ me." His voice is a low, husky growl; it sends shivers running through Cisco's body.

"We - I - look, I don't even know it _was_ me -"

Cisco falters, caught by the hungry look in Harry's eyes.

"Dr Wells!" It's Caitlin, frowning from the doorway, arms crossed, toe tapping.

Harry curses under his breath, lets go of Cisco's arm. "Is there a problem, Dr Snow?"

Cisco slowly backs away from him, sidles around Caitlin, walks away. Behind him he can hear Caitlin laying into Harry for getting out of bed, for being a poor patient, for endangering his heart...

* * *

Things at S.T.A.R. Labs return to normal, more or less. Harry goes back to joking around with Cisco, pretending to hand shank him, calling him by everything except his correct name. But sometimes Cisco catches Harry looking at him when he thinks nobody's watching; he seems to be waiting for something, but Cisco's not sure what. For himself, Cisco is still confused about his feelings towards Wells.

He takes what opportunities he can to touch Harry - a casual hand on his shoulder as he walks past his workstation, the odd punch on the arm - but he sees no visions, gets no vibes.

Then, just before Christmas, everything changes. Harry's suddenly distant again, rebuffing all offers of friendship, avoiding Cisco's touch. They're all concerned for him, but whenever anyone asks if he's okay, he just brushes them off with a brusque, "Why wouldn't I be?"

Caitlin thinks it's that he's worried about his daughter, but Cisco's sure there's more to it. Something's happened, and he intends to find out what. But then Weather Wizard returns to Central City and breaks Captain Cold and the Trickster our of Iron Heights, and S.T.A.R. Labs is suddenly on high alert.

"You know," Cisco muses aloud, thinking about Weather Wizard, "most weather phenomena are marked by a change in electrical charge in the atmosphere -"

Barry joins in, finishing Cisco's sentences for him as he develops his idea to bring down Weather Wizard by siphoning off the electrical charge with something -

"- kinda like a lightning rod -" says Cisco, "or -"

"- a Wizard's Wand!" agrees Barry.

Cisco looks puzzled. "Have we already had this conversation?"

Barry shrugs. "Kinda."

Harry is staring at them both. "What's that mean?"

"All right," Barry says, "so the last time Weather Wizard attacked, he generated a tidal wave that destroyed Central City."

Harry's eyebrows shoot up. "So why are you not all sleeping with the fishes?"

Cisco gets the reference immediately. "Earth-2 has _The Godfather_?"

"Every Earth has _The Godfather_ , Vito." For a fleeting moment Harry's face lightens. Then the shutters come down again and he's all business, concentrating on the problem in hand.  
.  
Things get rough for a while, but Barry and the S.T.A.R. Labs team prevail in the end: the villains are safely locked away, and they all celebrate at Joe's party. All except Harry.

"I did ask him," Barry assures Cisco, "but he said he couldn't celebrate without his daughter."

Cisco looks sourly over at Caitlin and Jay, locking lips again under the mistletoe. How come _he_ never gets lucky? His mind's suddenly made up.

"I'm gonna go back to the lab, make sure he's okay."

* * *

Cisco lets himself into a dark S.T.A.R. Labs. Everything's quiet. Hmmm. Maybe Harry's already gone? But Barry said he was working late, looked like he was going to be there all night.

"Might as well look around," Cisco decides.

First he goes down into the accelerator ring; no sign of Wells. Then he methodically goes through room after room. Still no Harry. At last, with a feeling of inevitability, he opens the door of the infirmary and sees him.

Harry has his back to the door; he's somehow managed to open the locked cabinet where Caitlin keeps the most dangerous drugs, and he's standing rigidly still, his head bowed over the small bottle of pills in his hand.

Cisco reacts instantly, snatching the pills away and putting them back in the cupboard. "Did you take any?"

Harry shakes his head. His face is a picture of misery. He stumbles away from Cisco, sits down heavily on the infirmary bed, buries his head in his hands. Cisco sits down beside him, puts his arm around Harry's shoulders, and is immediately hit by a vibe of such intensity he almost passes out.

He must have made some kind of noise, because the next thing he knows Harry has his hands either side of his face and is looking intently into his eyes.

"You saw Zoom," Harry says flatly.

"Yeah." Cisco swallows hard. "I saw him snatch your daughter right outta your arms. And you - you -"

"I agreed to betray you all. I agreed to help him steal Barry's speed," Harrison says, his voice harsh and bleak. "There. Now you know." He stares hard at Cisco. " _What are you gonna do about it?_ "


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!

There's a long silence after Harry's confession. Cisco's frowning, thinking out what to say. At last he begins in a low, serious tone, "Man, that's heavy. But trust me, I know how it feels. I betrayed Barry myself, once."

Harry doesn't say anything, but Cisco feels his tension, knows he's listening.

"Captain Cold had my brother, Dante. He blasted Dante's fingers with his cold gun." He doesn't tell Harry that he, Cisco, made that cold gun, albeit under duress. He reaches up to Harry's hands, still either side his face, grips them tightly.

Harry doesn't pull away. "Go on."

Cisco's silent for a moment. Then he says, "It was right after Barry erased that timeline where Dr Wells killed me, where Weather Wizard drowned Central City with a tidal wave." He swallows hard. "In the do-over, instead of Weather Wizard we got Captain Cold and his crew. He forced me to betray Barry to save my brother's life. He made me tell him who the Flash really was."

Cisco lets out a long breath.

"When I got back to S.T.A.R. Labs I told them what I'd done. I said I'd leave. And you know what Barry did? He hugged me, he forgave me." Cisco has to stop; he's almost in tears.

Harrison frowns. "Way I see it, you didn't have a choice. You had to save your brother."

" _Exactly_. And you don't have a choice either. You have to save your daughter." Cisco gives a shaken laugh. "And you know what? Our Dr Wells told me, _making a choice between two people you love is the hardest dilemma you will ever face_."

Now he _is_ crying. That scene with Wells is forever burned into his memory: the guy so kind, so caring, telling Cisco he thinks of him as a son. Which makes it all the more ironic that Cisco can _also_ remember the alternate timeline, in which Wells said those exact same words - right before he stabbed Cisco in the heart.

Harrison has no means of telling what Cisco is thinking, but the way the young man instinctively moved away from him when talking about his doppelganger gives him a pretty solid clue.

"Hey," he growls, "I'm not him, remember?"

And he pulls Cisco into a hug. A hug which begins as simple comfort, but rapidly develops into something more.

* * *

At Joe's party, Barry is beginning to worry about Cisco. _He should've been back by now,_ he thinks, glancing at the watch Joe gave him for Christmas. _Hope something hasn't happened to him._

"Are you okay?" Patty asks him.

Barry smiles into her eyes. "I'm fine," he says. "Hey, Patty? I thought I'd just, uh -" his eye falls on the Christmas parcel beside him, "- uh, go and try on your sweater. I mean, not _your_ sweater. Uh, not the one you're wearing. I mean -"

Patty's laughing. "I know what you mean," she says affectionately. "Want me to come with you?" She gives him a meaning look. "Help you try it on?"

"Er, no, it's okay, I'm good," Barry babbles, backing away from her. He stoops to pick up the gaily-wrapped parcel. "Why don't you go chat to Iris for a moment, I'll be right back."

Up in his room, he rakes his fingers through his hair, blows out a long breath. This just keeps getting more complicated. One day, he'll have to tell Patty he's the Flash. But not yet. Barry drops the parcel onto his bed, reaches for the bag with his Flash costume. He can get to S.T.A.R. Labs, check Cisco's okay, and be back before Patty has time to miss him.

* * *

Barry isn't sure what he expects at S.T.A.R. Labs, but it isn't what he finds: Harrison Wells lying on top of Cisco on the narrow infirmary bed, his hand inside Cisco's pants. They're kissing so passionately they don't notice Barry until he gasps aloud in shock. Even then Cisco doesn't react, eyes closed, a blissed-out look on his face. But Harrison rolls off him, tense, glaring, reaching for a weapon which isn't there.

Then he marginally relaxes. "Oh," he says flatly. "It's you."

Cisco's eyes fly open; he scrambles to sit up, adjusting his clothes. "Barry! Um, this isn't what it looks like."

"It's exactly what it looks like," Harrison says impatiently. "Did you want something? Because if it's not urgent, maybe you could allow us our privacy."

Barry goes red, starts to turn away.

"No, wait!" Cisco gets off the bed, grabs Barry by the arm. "Harry has something he needs to tell you."

Barry's eyes go wide. "That you two are a couple? Cisco, he's old enough to be your -"

"NO!" Cisco interrupts. "Not that. Harry?"

Harrison scowls. "And if I don't tell him you will, huh?"

Cisco's hurt. "No. But you should trust us. Together, we can figure something out."

Barry looks between them. "What? What is it?"

Agitated, Harrison pushes his fingers through his hair, starts to speak, stops. Cisco comes back to sit beside him on the bed, puts an encouraging arm around his shoulders. Harrison looks away from Barry, begins, "Zoom - isn't sending breachers from our world to yours to _kill_ the Flash. He's sending them to test him, make him faster, give him more - _Speed Force_."

The way he says this last is so reminiscent of the Dr Wells they used to know that Barry and Cisco exchange uneasy glances.

"Why would he want that?" asks Barry. "If I get more Speed Force, I stand more chance of defeating him, right?"

"Not on your own!" Harry looks round uneasily as if he fears Zoom may be eavesdropping. "You need other speedsters to help you," he adds in a hoarse whisper.

"What other speedsters? There's only Jay, and he's lost his speed. Zoom stole it." Barry gasps. "Is _that_ why Zoom wants me to have more? So he can steal it?"

"Yeah. And he made me promise to help him." Harrison crosses his arms. Cisco can feel tremors running through him, though his face shows only defiant challenge. "What do you think of _that_ , speed boy?"


	5. Chapter 5

Barry doesn't know what to think. All his old suspicions of Wells - and yes, he knows it's not _their_ Wells in front of him - come rushing back. Ironic that only hours before he forgave _this_ Wells as proxy for _that_ Wells, and now Harry himself is threatening to betray him.

Cisco sees the struggle on Barry's expressive face, hurriedly puts in, "Zoom has his daughter, Barry. I vibed him snatch her right outta Harry's arms. He's gonna kill her if Harry doesn't do what he wants, am I right, Harry?"

Harrison scowls. "He's probably gonna kill her anyway." His eyes briefly flit to the drugs cupboard, his shoulders sag. Then, with an obvious effort, he straightens up. "But I can't take the risk. I said I'd help him." He looks at Barry. "At least that buys us some time. Helping you get more speed - both you and Zoom want that. It's just the end game where you diverge."

Barry looks narrowly at him. "You play chess?"

"Yes, I play chess. What? Is that a suspicious activity on your Earth?" Baffled, Harrison looks between Barry and Cisco then suddenly barks a laugh. "This is about _him_ again, isn't it - my doppelganger? What, he played chess?"

Barry nods grimly. "Yeah. He was bloody good at it. Played it with our lives, too: we were all just pawns to him."

"From what I've heard, _you_ weren't just a pawn," Harrison tells him. He glances briefly at Cisco. "The rest of you, maybe. But you, Barry, I'd say you were his queen."

Barry's chin comes up. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Harrison waves an impatient hand. "Only that you seem to have been important to his game plan. Why, what else would -"

Cisco breaks in, anxious to keep the peace. "Give him a chance, Barry. Like he says, right now you both have the same goal: getting you more speed."

"And more speedsters," Harrison mutters. But he says it so quietly Barry doesn't catch the words at all, and Cisco, who does, isn't sure what he means.

* * *

Cisco gets a clue to what Harry may be intending when he comes into S.T.A.R. Labs the next day to find him seated at a bench, intent on the array of test tubes in a rack in front of him. They're all half-full of liquid, each a slightly different shade of purple from the next. Harry glances up at Cisco, flashes him an abstracted grin.

"More of your Velocity-6?" Cisco nods towards the test tubes.

"Nah. That turned out to be a bust. This is an improvement: Velocity-7."

Cisco takes in the pallor of Harry's face, the dark shadows under his eyes. "You been working on this all night?"

Harry nods. "Yeah."

Cisco doesn't know what to say. Himself, he went back to his comfortable bed last night, and here's Harry, pulling an all-nighter to try and save the daughter he loves.

"You shoulda told me, man! I could've helped you."

Harry doesn't answer; Cisco's not sure he even hears him, he's so engrossed in adding a clear liquid to one of the tubes from a pipette, one careful drop at a time. Cisco moves closer, waits till Harry lays the pipette down on the bench, puts a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"You're gonna break down if you carry on like this, Harry. You need to take a spell, relax some."

Harry blinks up at him. His voice harsh with fatigue, he grinds out painfully, "How can I? - When that - _monster_ \- has my daughter? - I gotta do everything I can - to get her back."

"It won't help her if you get sick," Cisco says, tightening his grasp on Harry's shoulder. He feels a thrill shoot through him; it's not a vibe, exactly - more an echo of his feelings when Harry and he were making out. Before he thinks, he blurts out, "You should come down to the infirmary, let me check you over."

"Isn't that Dr Snow's job?" Harry asks drily, shooting a look at Caitlin, who's apparently absorbed in the readout in front of her.

"Not what _I_ have in mind," Cisco says firmly, daring to lift his hand to card through Harry's rumpled hair.

For a moment he's afraid Harry's going to tell him to go to hell. But then Harry picks up the final test tube, holds it up to the light, says, "I guess I'm about done here. For now." His movements quick and assured, he fills a hypo from the tube. "Until Jay Garrick deigns to turn up."

Caitlin looks up at this. "You know how Jay feels about being your guinea pig," she says. "He won't do it."

"Not if _I_ ask him," Harrison agrees. He gets up, carries the hypo over to her workstation, lays it down beside her computer screen. "Maybe _you_ could persuade him, huh?"

And he follows Cisco out of the room.

* * *

They're no sooner inside the infirmary than Harry shuts the door firmly behind them, leans back against it, pulls Cisco into his arms.

"So, Frisco," he murmurs between heated kisses, "you gonna - give me - some - stress relief?"

Cisco feels Harrison's cock hard against him as their bodies press urgently together, hears Harrison's harsh breathing, sees the raw need in his eyes. He reaches down, tugs his zipper open. Harry's cock springs free: long, engorged, its head purple, swollen, glistening with precum. He can feel Harry's hands in his hair, urging him downward.

For a moment, Cisco hesitates. He's never blown a guy before. Then he gives in to what Harry so obviously wants, and sinks to his knees.

" _Y-e-a-h_ ," Harry moans on a long drawn out breath as Cisco takes him into his mouth. He winds his fingers more tightly in Cisco's long hair, tugs desperately, encouraging him to suck harder, harder.

Cisco's almost choking as Harry thrusts his hips forward while pulling on Cisco's hair; it feels like Harry's dick is halfway down his throat. But Harry hears his muffled noise of distress and immediately eases back, letting Cisco set the pace.

Cisco pauses a moment, getting his breath, his hand pumping Harry's cock. Then he puts it back in his mouth, laves its head with his tongue, savouring the salty, musky tang, before continuing to suck. This time Harry's hands are gentle in his hair, right up to the moment when Harry clenches his fists, shouts out incoherently, and shoots his load down Cisco's willing throat.

Afterwards, Harry sprawls back onto the bed, boneless, exhausted. A moment later he's fast asleep. Cisco looks at him for a long moment, watching the deep lines of stress around his mouth smooth out as he relaxes. Then, ignoring the little voice telling him that Harry was utterly selfish - for Cisco's own boner is in urgent need of attention - he covers Harry with a blanket, kisses him tenderly on the forehead and tiptoes out of the room.


	6. Chapter 6

After leaving Harry, Cisco heads straight for the bathroom. He needs to take care of this boner before going back into the lab; he can just imagine Barry's comments at the obvious bulge in his pants. It doesn't take long: a few hard tugs, and he's spilling all over his hand.

"Harry," he groans as he comes. "Oh, _Harry_." He's seized by sudden deep sadness. Part of him wants to go back to the infirmary, snuggle close to Harry's sleeping body.

"Don't be such a girl," he tells himself irritably as he washes up. He studies himself in the mirror; he looks like he's been pulled through a hedge backwards. Cisco pulls out a comb and passes it through his hair, reliving the feel of Harry's fingers clutching, tugging; the look in his eyes. _Was_ it just - what did he call it - _stress relief_ , to him? Or something more?

The door behind him swings open and Barry's there, grinning at him in the mirror.

"Looking good, girl!"

"Piss off," Cisco says, giving one last stroke through his hair, patting it, tucking his comb away in his pocket.

Barry punches him amicably on the arm, strides over to the urinal.

"You okay, Cisco?" he asks over his shoulder.

"Yeah," Cisco mutters. "Why wouldn't I be?"

This echo of Harry's stock answer makes them both grin ruefully.

"Really?" persists Barry. "Because if Wells is giving you a hard time -"

"None of your fuckin' business, Barry," snaps Cisco, thinking of exactly how... _hard_... a time Wells is giving him.

"Cisco -" But Barry's interrupted by a buzz from his phone; he zips up, tugs his phone out of his pocket, looks at the display. "It's Joe. Trouble from some sorta meta. Lava - _what_?" He scowls at the phone in his hand. "Looks like Joe's predictive text is acting up again."

He swings the bathroom door open. "I better get suited up." Then, with a serious look at Cisco, "You know you can always talk to me, right?"

"Sure, bro," Cisco says, thumping him on the arm. "Don't worry about me. You get on out there, deal with this meta. I'll go back to the lab, monitor what goes down."

* * *

Five minutes later, and Barry is feeling grateful once again for the heat-shielding Cisco built into his suit, as he whisks another schoolkid out of the path of the meta's molten lava.

"It's like he's sneezing out the stuff; it's pouring everywhere." Barry's voice coming over the lab's speakers sounds almost scared. "I don't know how to stop him, guys."

Cisco leans in to the mic, starts to say something, breaks off as an indescribable sound blares out of the speaker.

"Yikes! What was _that_?"

"It sounds like he got buried in the lava slide," says Cailin, alarmed. "Barry? Barry, are you okay?"

There's a long silence. Cisco and Caitlin stare at each other, each seeing their own horror mirrored in the other's eyes. 

Then a bedraggled, tattered figure limps in, leans against a bench, drags down his hood, gasps for breath. It's Barry.

"Barry!" Cisco leaps up, grabs Barry by the shoulders, shakes him. "What happened? Why didn't you let us know?"

"Suit mic's fried." Barry gulps in more air. "Lucky I wasn't fried, too."

Caitlin fusses over him, checking his vitals, examining his bare skin. "Looks like you got off lightly, Barry. Some second-degree burns, but they're healing already."

"My suit!" mourns Cisco, picking up the ruins of Barry's Flash costume from the floor where he'd tossed it.

" _Our_ suit," corrects Barry, but his heart's not in it. "Man, if it wasn't for that suit I'd be dead."

"What happened to the metahuman?" asks Caitlin.

Barry's expressive face clouds. "Dead. Drowned in his own lava."

"How come?"

"I tricked him with speed mirages; he span round, projecting all this molten lava - and he just got caught up in it." Barry shrugs helplessly. "I feel bad about it, guys. I feel bad about him, about all the metas who wound up dead because of me."

Cisco and Caitlin can only look at him in silent sympathy.

* * *

"Absolutely not."

"But, Jay -"

"I said no, Caitlin, and I meant it. I'm not putting any more of Harrison Wells's poison into my veins."

Caitlin gestures helplessly towards the hypo on her desk. "But he's improved the formula -"

" _No_ , Caitlin. I don't trust the guy, and I'm amazed that you do."

"I trust him, too." Cisco isn't sure what made him speak up, but he flounders on under Jay's disbelieving stare. "Uh, he's only trying to save his daughter from Zoom."

"That's right." Harry's voice comes from the doorway; they all look over and see him, leaning against the wall. "How would you feel if that - monster - had someone _you_ love, Jay?"

Jay glares at him. "Don't you try to manipulate me, Wells. You were the one who created Zoom in the first place."

"An accident." Harry pushes himself away from the wall, stalks over to Jay Garrick; it's clear he's furious. "And Zoom could have been stopped before he got too powerful - if you'd just - _Done. Your. Job._ "

Cisco looks at Harry in concern. The man obviously didn't get nearly as much sleep as Cisco hoped he would, as much sleep as he needs; he's running on fumes, barely holding it together.

Jay's oblivious to this. "I saved your life, asshole."

"So you know my serum works. And this version is even better." Harry reaches out, grabs Jay by the shoulder, shakes him hard. "You don't _want_ your speed back, do you Garrick? Now why is that? Because you're _afraid_ of facing Zoom?"

Jay shrugs him off. "Any sane person would be afraid of Zoom; that doesn't stop me wanting my speed back. But I'm not risking the side effects of your serum."

"There are no side effects!" Harry bellows, but Jay just shakes his head and walks away. Frustrated, furious, Harry snatches up the hypo full of Velocity-7 and jabs it into his own wrist.

The next minute he's writhing on the floor in convulsions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Acknowledgements:  
> The awesome M.A.T.E.S. podcast (ep #98) for the villain of the week.


	7. Chapter 7

Cisco's the first to reach him, with Caitlin not far behind. Only Jay holds back, arms crossed over his chest, watching as Cisco and Caitlin manoeuvre Harry into the recovery position.

Caitlin picks up Harry's hypo. "I need to analyse the residue in here, see what's safe to give him."

Cisco is doing his best to hold Harry still, keep him from harming himself as his limbs jerk and spasm. It seems like an age before Caitlin's back, a different hypo in her hand.

"This should help." She carefully injects the arm Cisco's holding steady for her.

"What is it?" Cisco sounds anxious.

"Muscle relaxant, mainly. I couldn't do a full analysis on his - what's he calling this one?"

"Velocity-7."

"Right. Well, from the very high-level analysis I did do, what I just gave him won't react adversely with any of the Velocity-7 components. But I wish -" Caitlin breaks off, frowning. She glances over at Jay Garrick, who's busy with his phone.

Cisco's cradling Harry's head with his arms; violent tremors still run through the man's body every so often, but they seem to be getting less frequent. "Should I take him to the infirmary?" Cisco asks.

Caitlin starts to reply, but she's interrupted by Jay. "I just called Barry," he says. "I caught him in his forensics lab at the precinct. He says he has something that might help."

A minute later Barry himself zips into S.T.A.R. Labs, slightly out of breath, holding up a test tube. He and Caitlin confer briefly, then Caitlin fills a hypo with the mixture in the tube.

"Are you sure about this? It won't hurt him?" Cisco asks anxiously.

"He'll be fine," Caitlin reassures him, bending to give Harry the second shot.

The results are almost immediate: the tremors stop racking Harry's limbs, his whole body relaxes into a peaceful sleep. Caitlin and Barry fist-bump each other in triumph.

Nobody but Cisco notices that just before Harry relaxes, little bolts of lightning seem to run along his hand.

* * *

Cisco sits in the infirmary, watching over Harry's sleep. Every so often he contemplates Harry's hand, wondering whether he really saw those little bolts of lightning, or if he just imagined it. He _must_ have imagined it: Harry's no speedster. And this formula of his is designed to help people who are already speedsters, not create one from scratch. But...

But, he's almost sure he _did_ see... no, it's impossible. Harry isn't a metahuman. That watch of his with the app for detecting metas, the one that outed Cisco as Vibe - it's never given a hint that its wearer may be one too.

_Yeah_ , Cisco thinks, _but_ Harry _engineered that watch. Easy enough to slip in a sneaky bit of programming to exclude himself from its results._ He sighs. He doesn't know _what_ to think.

Glancing at Harry's wrist he realises that the watch is missing. Now why would that be? Cisco gently rolls back Harry's sleeve to make sure. Yes: no watch.

"Hey."

For a moment, Cisco isn't sure who's spoken. Then he looks up, sees Harry's eyes are open.

"Hey, Cisco." Harry's voice is softer that Cisco's ever known it. "What happened?"

"You gave yourself a shot of your Velocity-7 formula," Cisco tells him. "It didn't go well."

"Why would I do that? That doesn't make sense." Harry frowns, trying to remember.

Cisco shrugs. "Maybe trying to prove to Jay Garrick it was safe?"

"That pussy Garrick." Harry passes his hand over his face. "Guess he wasn't convinced, huh?"

"Hardly."

Harry sighs. "Oh well. I better get to work on Velocity-8." He tries to get up, collapses back, a puzzled look on his face.

"You stay right here," Cisco says. "I'll get Caitlin come check you over."

He's reaching for the door when Harry says, "Cisco."

Cisco turns, sees the knowing look in Harry's blue eyes. "What?"

"Stay with me?"

Cisco hesitates, his hand on the door. "What. You want another bj?"

* * *

Harry rubs his face, feels the rasp of bristles against his palm. His head feels fuzzy; he's having trouble concentrating.

"Cisco," he says again, more urgently this time. " _Exactly_ what happened? I can't remember a thing."

Cisco lets go of the door, comes back, sits on the bed beside Harry.

"You don't remember the blowjob?"

Harry briefly considers lying, squashes the temptation. "I'll never forget the blowjob." He grabs Cisco's hand, squeezes it. "No, it's afterwards. What happened afterwards?"

"I left you here asleep," Cisco says. "You'd pulled an all-nighter, working on Velocity-7; you were wrecked." He returns the pressure on Harry's hand. "But you didn't stay sleeping long. You came back up to the lab, had an argument with Jay about the Velocity-7. He said he wouldn't poison himself with your serum, said something about side effects."

Harry frowns, trying to remember. "Yeah..." he says slowly. "Yeah... that figures. Garrick would say that. Dick."

He sees Cisco grin. "You and Jay Garrick don't like each other much, do you?" Cisco says.

Harry hesitates. "Lets just say we have - history. So, what happened next?"

Cisco shrugs. "You, uh, you snappped. Grabbed the hypo. Jay musta thought you were gonna give him the serum by force; he backed away. But you shot it in yourself, instead." His eyes go wide with remembered horror. "It was hell, man. Next minute you were on the floor, having some kinda seizure."

Harry winces. "Guess that's why I ache all over. But my head? Why's my head all fuzzy?"

"I guess that might be the shots Caitlin gave you."

"Shots?! What shots?" Harry hauls himself into a sitting position, glares at Cisco.

"Just some muscle relaxant - oh, and something Barry cooked up."

"Worse and worse," Harry groans.

"Hey, don't you trust us? We wouldn't hurt you. We're trying to help, but you don't make it easy."

Harry's face softens. "I trust _you_ , Cisco. C'mere."

And he holds out his arms, pulls Cisco against his chest, and buries his face in Cisco's hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic started as a bit of fun to while away the midseason hiatus. With tonight's return of The Flash (yay!) at 8.00 pm EST, that hiatus is over. SO. I need to make a choice of what to do next:
> 
> a. Wind up the fic.  
> b. Continue, with no reference to future episodes of the show.  
> c. Continue, with (some) reference to (some) events in future episodes of the show.  
> d. Something else.
> 
> What do you guys think?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everybody who replied to my poll at the end of the last chapter. Your feedback has encouraged me to continue with this fic. We'll see how it goes!

Cisco grins happily as he feels Harry nuzzling into his hair. Maybe he's going to get some at last? But hey, all that had better wait; he still doesn't know what effect the various drugs have had on the guy's system. Reluctantly, he pulls away from Harry's embrace.

"I really oughta get Caitlin come check you over."

"Bullshit! I'm fine," protests Harry. But when he tries to get off the bed, he collapses back, wincing.

"What's wrong?" asks Cisco, alarmed. 

"Nothing. Just - help me up, huh?"

Cisco tries, but soon it's clear that Harry can't even stand unaided.

"Fuck," he mutters. "All I need." He looks up at Cisco. "Could you get me a cane or something? Maybe even the chair Barry used after Zoom wrecked him that time."

"Dr Wells's old wheelchair?" Cisco's voice rises. "Trust me, you better not use that. Seeing you in evil Wells's chair really would freak everybody out."

Harry snorts out a brief laugh. "Evil Wells! Is that what you guys call my doppelganger? So - what do you call me?"

Then the amusement dies out of his face; he looks sternly at Cisco. "I've grown very fond of you," he tells him, as if the admission hurts, "but nothing - _nothing_ is gonna get in the way of rescuing my daughter."

"Hey, where'd that come from?" protests Cisco. "I'm not getting in the way! I wanna _help_ you rescue her!"

Harry's eyes are glittering strangely; he reaches out and grabs Cisco's Star Wars t-shirt, hauls him closer.

His eyes fixed apprehensively on Harry's flushed face, Cisco fumbles his phone out of his jeans pocket. The guy's acting so weird: something - maybe the Velocity-7, maybe whatever Barry cooked up - seems to have scrambled his circuits. Trying to push Harry away one-handed, Cisco thumbs down his contacts list, looking for Caitlin's entry.

* * *

Up in the main lab, Caitlin is arguing with Jay. "I don't get why you're so down on Harry," she says, then adds, wanting to be fair, "though you did take his Velocity-6 serum and get that bullet out, so thank you for that."

"Caitlin," Jay says earnestly, taking her hands in his, "Caitlin, you need to be careful with that guy. Oh, I'm not saying he's evil, not exactly. But you definitely shouldn't trust Harrison Wells. Back on our world, he was so obsessed with discovering the secrets of the universe, he didn't give a fuck who he damaged along the way. That's why -"

But Caitlin isn't listening; the phone on the desk beside her has lit up and is vibrating with an incoming call from Cisco. She frees her hands from Jay's grasp and picks it up.

"Hi Cisco."

Cisco's voice sounds hushed and urgent in her ear. "Caitlin, can you come down to the infirmary, check Harry over? He's acting weird, and I can't -"

He breaks off; Caitlin hears confused noises in the background. Worried, she grabs her medical kit, slings it over her shoulder, and heads for the door, her phone held to her ear. "Cisco? Are you okay?"

There's what sounds like a short struggle, with Harry shouting incoherently in the background, then Cisco's back. He sounds breathless. "Caitlin? Come as soon as you can, okay?"

Caitlin glances over her shoulder, wondering whether she should ask Jay to come and help: it sounds like Harry might be getting violent. But Jay's not looking at her; he's staring moodily at the floor, his hands in his pockets. And Barry's nowhere to be seen. Oh well, she expects she and Cisco can manage. Caitlin shrugs, and leaves the lab.

* * *

Jay's still sunk in introspection when Barry comes in. He glances up briefly, notes that Barry, too, seems gloomy.

"Jay," Barry begins, slumping into a chair, "I could use some advice. I don't know what to do about - Patty." His voice cracks on her name.

With an effort, Jay puts his own worries aside, comes to sit opposite him. "What's wrong, Barry?"

Barry rakes his fingers through his hair. "In that video message he left, Dr Wells said I'd never be happy. I thought I'd proved him wrong: I'm happy with Patty."

"I AM," he insists, although Jay hasn't said anything. "But - I keep getting these dreams - nightmares - where Zoom takes Patty and kills her. Kills my happiness."

He swivels his chair agitatedly from side to side.

"What should I do, Jay? I'm all messed up. Should I tell Patty I'm the Flash or not? Iris thinks I should tell her. But Wells - Earth-2 Wells - he says that would just put her in danger."

Jay frowns. "I don't know where he gets that from. Think about it, Barry. Zoom got a pretty good look at you without your hood - that must've told him who you are, if he didn't already know - and he does seem to know a lot about you." He shrugs. "I expect that includes the information that Barry Allen is dating Patty Spivot. So even if you do tell her, I guess she can't be in any more danger than she is already."

"Well, _that's_ comforting," Barry says sarcastically. He looks around the lab, realising for the first time that he and Jay are alone there. "Where is everybody?"

Jay glances at his watch, realises quite how long Caitlin has been gone, feels uneasy. "Down in the infirmary with Harrison Wells, I expect," he says slowly. "Caitlin took her medical kit with her." He looks accusingly at Barry. "What was in that stuff you gave him?"

"It shouldn't have hurt him," Barry says, defensive. "He was okay when I left. Me and Cisco carried him to the infirmary, put him to bed. Cisco said he'd stay with him."

"Cisco phoned Caitlin," Jay says, remembering her _Hi Cisco_ as she took the call, "that's when she picked up her medikit and left in a hurry."

"I better go see if they're okay," says Barry, and speeds off.

Jay curses himself for being so wrapped up in his own troubles that he hasn't thought to check on Caitlin before.

 _If anything's happened to her I'll never forgive myself,_ he thinks as he follows Barry out of the lab.


	9. Chapter 9

When Jay arrives, Barry's arguing with Caitlin. Harry, shirtless, is sitting on the bed looking surly, and Cisco's leaning against a tall storage cabinet turning his head from one to the other.

Caitlin flings her stethoscope aside. "Barry, I can't find anything else wrong with him, so it must be a reaction to whatever you brought over from your lab."

"That's impossible, Caitlin - run your checks again."

"Hey," Harry interrupts them. "Don't I get a say in this?"

Jay glares at Caitlin, who's now passing her hands over Harry's bare chest. "Put him down, you don't know where he's been."

Harry sneers at him. "Didn't see you complaining when she was all over you like a rash, Garrick."

"Hey, guys -" Cisco begins, but nobody pays him any attention.

Jay comes further into the room, kicking the door shut behind him with unnecessary force. His fists are clenched; he looks as if he'd like to hit Harry. Harry, unfazed, slowly stands up.

"Back off, Garrick."

They stare at each other for a long moment, tension crackling in the air between them. It's Jay who eventually gives way: swearing under his breath, he turns his back on Harry and vents his frustration by violently booting the base of the storage cabinet.

Everyone bar Jay is staring at Harry to see his reaction, so Harry is the only one to notice that the cabinet is swaying dangerously after Jay's kick, and that the pile of out-of-use equipment on top of it is about to plummet onto Cisco's head.

Harry's response is instant. In a burst of speed worthy of the Flash himself, he covers the distance between them, grabs Cisco and whisks him onto the bed, where he covers him with his body. Cisco, shocked, could swear he sees a lightning-trail fading in the air behind them.

The clutter from the cabinet crashes harmlessly to the ground - harmlessly, that is, apart from a large glass flask which shatters, and a heavy battery-pack which lands on Jay's foot.

Barry, too, has seen the lightning-trail. "Hey! That was cool. That was - _speedster_!"

"Can you do it again?" asks Caitlin, reaching for her monitor.

But no matter how hard Harry tries, there's nothing.

"Maybe it's like me vibing," Cisco says thoughtfully. "I can't seem to control that, either."

"Hmmm." Harry eyes him speculatively. "We need to work on figuring out our triggers..."

* * *

Over the next day or so Harry doesn't show any further speedster tendencies - or if he does, he's not sharing them with the rest of the team. He does seem to have made a full recovery from the adverse effects of the drugs in his system, and spends most of his time in front of the board scribbling formulae incomprehensible to everyone but Caitlin.

One morning he comes into the main lab, looks around in a lost sort of way. "Where's Cisco?"

Caitlin glances up from her screen. "He rang in earlier, said he's taking a duvet day."

"Duvet day?!" Harry sounds outraged.

Barry, who's been moodily kicking his chair, puts in, "Don't you have them on Earth-2? It's when -"

"As I've told you before, I'm from Earth-1, _you_ guys are Earth-2," snaps Harry, "and we have duvet days too - but not when there's _fucking important work to be done_!" His voice rises indignantly.

Joe, who's taken to hanging around S.T.A.R. Labs keeping an unobtrusive eye on Barry, raises his palms placatingly. "Calm down, Harry. Young Cisco deserves a rest. He's been working hard, lately."

"Drinking hard, too," Barry says, "that's probably the real reason."

Caitlin raises her eyebrows. "What were you boys doing last night?"

"Poker night," says Joe, "Harry here cleaned us out."

"Yeah," Barry says grumpily, "he _claims_ they don't have poker on Earth-2 -"

"Earth-1 -"

"Earth-fucking-whatever - but sure didn't look like it to me."

Caitlin mouths "Poker night?" at Joe, who leans over and murmurs in her ear, "Yeah, Cisco organised it to try and cheer up Barry. He's been real down since he and Patty split: we're worried about him."

Barry catches the word _Patty_ ; his mouth draws down. "Guess Wells was right. I'm never gonna be happy."

"Maybe you should quit feeling sorry for yourself and do something useful," snaps Harry, "like, oh I don't know, _stopping Zoom_?"

For a moment Barry cowers in his chair like a whipped puppy. Then he deliberately straightens his back, lifts his chin. "You know what? You're right. I've been so selfish; grabbing at happiness with Patty, when all the time Zoom has your daughter." He gives Harry an apologetic look. "I'll concentrate one hundred percent on helping rescue her from now on."

"Thanks."

Suddenly the others are startled to hear Cisco screaming repeatedly. Barry looks around the lab as if Cisco might be hiding somewhere. Harry, deadpan, pulls out his phone and answers it: immediately the screams stop. 

"Hi Cisco."

He listens a moment, says, "OK," and returns the phone to his pocket. Seeing the expressions on the others faces, he says, "What? Cisco's ringtone." and leaves without further explanation.

Barry raises his eyebrows. "Do we wanna know why he has Cisco screaming as a ringtone?"

"And how he made him scream," says Joe, looking intrigued.

Caitlin rolls her eyes. "Probably better not ask."

Joe bursts out laughing, claps his hand over his mouth, looks guilty.

Barry scowls.

* * *

Harry isn't sure what to expect when he arrives at Cisco's apartment - Cisco'd been cryptic on the phone, just asking Harry to come over, he needed his input. But when he's buzzed in to find Cisco wearing nothing but Doctor Who underpants, Harry gets a clue what he has in mind, especially as the blue box across their front is bulging suspiciously.

Cisco follows Harry's gaze. "Bigger on the inside than the outside," he says, and giggles a bit nervously.

"Huh?"

"The T.A.R.D.I.S. Bigger on the - holy crap, don't you have _Doctor Who_ on your world?"

"Doctor what?"

"Not Doctor What, Doctor - shit, no. No, I don't _believe_ this. Just like I don't believe you don't really have poker on your world, either."

Harry grins. "That was beginner's luck, Frisco."

He pulls Cisco to him, holds him close, nuzzles into his hair. He'd been meaning to have stern words with the young man about taking a duvet day when there's so much work to be done at S.T.A.R. Labs, but what he finds himself saying is, "I didn't see your bedroom on poker night."

"Hardly, with Joe and Barry here too," Cisco says. "Wanna see it now?"

Harry feels Cisco hard against him and everything else temporarily flies out of his head. "Mmm," he says, between kisses, "yeah - I'd - like - mmm - _that_."

Cisco grabs Harry's hand, tows him into the bedroom, and falls back onto the bed, pulling Harry down on top of him. Their kisses grow deeper, more lingering.

"Guess I'm a tad overdressed for this," Harry whispers, drawing back.

Cisco watches as Harry strips down to his own underpants - plain black, no Doctor Who for him - and rejoins him on the bed.

"Yeah," Harry says contentedly, "that's better."

He's hovering over Cisco, propping himself up on his forearms, so their cocks just brush together through their thin cotton underwear, and Cisco thinks it's the hottest thing that's ever happened to him, especially once Harry starts to move...


	10. Chapter 10

"Cisco and Wells are bein' a long time."

"Yeah, Joe, we think they've got a thing going on."

Joe grimaces. "Don't tell me that, Barry! I got enough to worry about without imagining Wells fucking Cisco."

"Why, what's wrong, Joe?"

Joe shrugs, pats Barry on the shoulder. "Nothing you can help with, son." He hesitates a moment, then adds, "It's Wally."

"Oh - yeah." Barry was so tied up with Patty at the time, he'd barely registered the unfolding West family drama: the son Joe didn't know he had, the mother Iris thought was dead... Now, though, he realises that Joe's been looking tired and worried for some time.

"Hey, I've been selfish about you too, haven't I? I know you keep hanging with me to make sure I'm okay after me and Patty split up, but you really don't need to. You should spend the time with your own son."

Joe smiles at him. "Don't beat yourself up, Barry. And you _are_ my son - as good as. But Wally -" He sighs. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised he resents me - the detective who never bothered to find out he had a son."

"But he's moved to Central City, right?" asks Caitlin, looking sympathetically at Joe. "He must want to be near you and Iris really."

Joe shakes his head. "He's only here for the street racing. The highly dangerous, _illegal_ street racing. And that's a whole other worry." He shrugs, forces a smile. "Anyhoo, enough of my troubles. What's all this about Wells chicken-hawking Cisco? I don't trust that guy one bit..."

* * *

The age difference between himself and Harry is the last thing on Cisco's mind. With Harry moving rhythmically on top of him, the only thing he can think of is sex. Harry's cock rubbing against his cock through their underwear, Harry's lips pressing against his lips, Harry's tongue pushing into his mouth - it's an assault he's happy to succumb to. Dreamily, Cisco puts his arms around Harry and kneads the muscles of Harry's back as he returns his kisses. Harry grunts, frots harder. Cisco's hands move lower, slip inside Harry's briefs. He begins squeezing Harry's buttocks, urging him on.

They move together for what seems like an enchanted eternity to Cisco, but Harry's getting impatient. He tugs the T.A.R.D.I.S. underpants down just enough for Cisco's erect cock to spring out, to be captured by Harry's waiting hand, which expertly teases and manipulates to bring Cisco to the brink of orgasm. Then Harry presses their bare cocks, slippery with precum, together: squeezing, sliding, tugging, until Cisco comes, gasping out high-pitched, breathy, ecstatic cries. Harry strips their underpants off completely, hurls them across the room; bends over Cisco, pushes his own still-hard cock between Cisco's thighs, thrusts frantically until he, too, comes.

Cisco feels the warm wetness against his inner thigh, swims slowly up from the depths of a sexual haze just in time to see Harry putting his phone down on the nightstand with a self-satisfied smirk.

"What?" he gasps, "You were _recording_ us?"

"Audio only," Harry assures him. "Your friends seemed upset by my ringtone of you screaming, so I thought I'd update it."

"Harr- _ee_ ," Cisco wails, punching him on the shoulder. "And you think they'll be okay with hearing me _come_ every time your phone rings, you kinky fuck?"

"Only when it's _you_ callling me."

"Oh well, that's okay then."

"Good."

" _Sarcasm_ , Harry!"

Harry grins unrepentantly, gets off the bed, stretches the kinks out of his spine. "I could use a shower."

"Across the hallway. Clean towels in the closet."

"Thanks." Harry unclasps his watch, lays it on the nightstand, saunters naked out of the bedroom, humming to himself.

The sight of Harry's watch abruptly dispels the last of Cisco's post coital haze. _So, it didn't go missing after all. Wonder if he really did hack his meta detection app to exclude himself?_ Cisco picks up the watch, turns it over thoughtfully, makes up his mind. He goes out into the hallway, listens carefully; Harry's singing and splashing in the shower.

Cisco goes back into his bedroom, shuts the door, and sets to work.

* * *

"Hey, Cisco? Something wrong between you and Harry?" Barry asks. "You two came into S.T.A.R. Labs coupla days ago smelling of roses, and now he'll barely look at you."

Cisco glances up briefly from the gizmo he's putting together. "I don't know for sure, but I aim to find out." He picks up his soldering iron, lowers his voice so Barry has to lean in to hear him. "First off I thought maybe he was feeling guilty about enjoying sex with me while Zoom still had his daughter. But there's more to it than that." He carefully solders two tiny components together, returns the soldering iron to its stand.

"What do you think's wrong?" murmurs Barry.

"He went off by himself last night. When he came back he'd totally changed back to the way he was when we first met him, wouldn't let me get anywhere near him." Cisco blows out a frustrated breath. "I think he's afraid of me vibing him. I think Zoom's got to him again, and he's afraid of what I might see."

Caitlin's joined them in time to hear this last remark; she looks worried. "He does seem to have something on his mind," she says. "More than usual, I mean."

"But that's so silly," Barry says. "He should just tell us what's wrong. Together we can figure something out."

Caitlin nods. "I agree. He's just hurting himself. Look at him."

They glance over at Harry, working at a bench in the far corner of the lab, his back turned to them, his whole posture screaming _leave me alone_.

"Welp," Cisco says, carefully fitting his gizmo together and holding it out to Caitlin, "this should help us find out what's going on. You're the only one he lets near him right now. Tell him, oh I don't know, you need to run a check on his vitals after that seizure he had the other week. Just make sure _this_ puppy is close to that watch of his for about ten seconds, okay?"

"What does it do?" Caitlin asks, taking it from him and looking at it doubtfully.

"Nothing bad," Cisco assures her. "It'll install a little app of mine on his watch, that's all. Just don't let him catch you doing it."

"O-kay," Caitlin says. Then, obviously convinced by the sincere look Cisco's giving her, she palms the gizmo, picks up her medkit and walks across the lab towards Harry.


	11. Chapter 11

Barry and Cisco watch Caitlin walking across the lab towards Harry.

"Okay," Barry hisses. "Give. What app?" Suddenly, disconcertingly, he giggles. "What's app, doc!" he says, and elbows Cisco in the ribs.

Cisco rolls his eyes. "Lame, dude."

Caitlin's now reached Harry, who looks up at her and scowls. Caitlin talks to him for a moment, lays her medkit on the bench in front of him, talks some more. Finally Harry nods reluctantly.

Cisco can't take his eyes off him. That rumpled black hair, which only the other day Cisco had delighted in threading through his fingers. Those lips, now compressed in annoyance, which had brought him to the edge of ecstasy. Those skilled, _experienced_ , hands...

Harry seems to sense Cisco watching him; he turns his head, looks over his shoulder. For a moment their eyes meet - Cisco's yearning, Harry's unfathomable - then he turns back to Caitlin, who's rolling up his sleeve, placing her fingers on his pulse.

"The app," Barry prompts impatiently.

"Oh - yeah." Cisco reluctantly drags his attention away from Harry. "Well, I was curious about that smart watch Harry wears, that metahuman detector app of his. The one he used to out me?"

Barry nods.

Cisco hesitates for a moment. "I did just wonder whether _Harry_ might be metahuman, too."

"A secret speedster?" Barry looks incredulous.

"Yeah, I know, it sounds crazy. But hear me out." Cisco loses his thread for a moment as something across the lab catches his eye: Harry rolling his sleeve back down with quick, impatient movements; Caitlin packing up her medkit.

"Ow! That _hurt_!" protests Cisco; Barry's just punched his arm, hard.

"You'd gone off into a dream, man," Barry says, unapologetic.

Cisco isn't going to share the train of thought which the sight of Harry's long, clever fingers just set off, but he wriggles in his chair, feeling uncomfortably horny.

"Okay," he says, "so these experiments of his with Velocity-what-the-fuck - I wondered if they gave him powers."

"But his app didn't detect _him_ ," objects Barry.

" _Exactly_. So I thought that maybe he'd frigged it to ignore himself. I wanted to know more about how his watch works, too. So I, er, I borrowed it." Cisco looks a bit uncomfortable.

Barry raises his eyebrows. " _Borrowed_?" he repeats, and grins knowingly at Cisco.

"Borrowed what?" asks Caitlin, arrived back at Cisco's workstation.

"Harry's smart watch. I was just explaining to Barry, I got curious about it. So I - okay, I took it while he was in the shower. I wanted to analyse its code."

"Wow. You did that while he was in the shower? I'm impressed," says Barry.

"No. I'm smart, but I'm not _that_ smart." Cisco hesitates, feeling an uncomfortable twinge of déjà vu. Then he shakes it off, shrugs, goes on, "I did a core dump of the watch memory to my laptop while he was in the shower. I've been analysing it ever since."

"So, _your_ app? The one we installed just now?" asks Caitlin.

"Ah. _My_ app..."

* * *

Night time in S.T.A.R. Labs, the lights turned low to conserve power. Caitlin's gone home to her apartment, Harry's slunk off on some unspecified errand. Barry and Cisco are intent on Cisco's screen, waiting for an alert from his app.

"I get that your app pings you when Harry's near one of the breaches," Barry says, "but what then? Do I zip over and take a look?"

Cisco shakes his head vigorously. "Nope. If he's secretly meeting Zoom like we think, that would just put you in danger. We hafta wait till Harry gets back, then use _this_ -" picking up a small gizmo, tossing it in the air and catching it - "to download the recording my app will trigger in Harry's watch."

"Why didn't you get your app to beam it to us real-time?"

"Couldn't get that working in the time. His watch has some _serious_ security features." Cisco shakes his head in admiration, then stiffens as his screen lights up, displaying a map of the known breaches around Central City. One of the outlying breaches is flashing red.

" _Yes_!" Cisco punches the air. "That's our baby. Woo- _hoo_!"

He abruptly sobers, remembering that this means Harry is out there by that breach, where he has no legitimate reason to be; that Zoom is most likely there with him; that Harry may at this very moment be in danger.

Barry's watching Cisco's face. "I could go over there," he offers again.

Cisco hesitates, torn. But before he has to decide, the flashing red indicator on his screen suddenly turns to solid green.

"Whew! No need, bro. Harry's not there anymore. He must be on his way back to S.T.A.R. Labs."

"Or snatched through the breach to Earth-2," Barry says gloomily. "And how do we get close enough to download the recording? Caitlin's not here to help."

"Trust me," Cisco says confidently, picking up his gizmo and striding towards the workstation Harry normally uses. "I got a plan."

* * *

Cisco and Barry huddle together in the back of the S.T.A.R. Labs van - the most private place they can think of, offhand - to listen to Cisco's prize. Cisco's pushed a phone jack into his gizmo and they have an earbud each.

The first thing they hear is Harry, groaning; Cisco finds the sound so erotic he almost jizzes his pants. Then he realises that Zoom was probably torturing Harry and smacks his own forehead.

"I'm such a bad person!"

"Keep still, you're pulling this thing outa my ear," Barry says. "Hey, I think that was the end of the recording. You need to rewind."

Cisco prods at his gizmo with the tip of a tiny screwdriver. "Okay. Here we go."

This time they hear Zoom, his voice oozing into their ears like toxic, melted tar; Barry shudders at the sound. " _Where - is - the - speed - you - promised - me?_ "

Then they hear Harry's voice. "Give me back my daughter and I'll get you the Flash's speed."

" _You're - not - in a - position to - negotiate..._ "

"You won't kill me - and you won't kill my daughter - because _if_ you do, you won't get what you want." Harry sounds breathless but defiant.

" _I don't - NEED - to kill - your daughter -_ "

There's a sudden, sharp cry of agony from Harry; Cisco bites his nails, imagining what Zoom's doing to him.

" _\- I can torture her - like THIS -_ " another scream from Harry " _\- bring her - right up - to the edge of - death -_ " incoherent sobbing " _\- so I can do it again - the next day - and the next..._ "

Barry and Cisco stare at each other, horrified. A long silence follows, in which they imagine they hear zaps of blue lightning.

" _Bring - me - The Flash's - speed!_ "

Another heartrending groan from Harry.

The recording cuts off.


	12. Chapter 12

Now Cisco understands why Harry looked so shaken when he came back into the lab just now; why he was so preoccupied he didn't notice Cisco's gizmo hidden under the papers on his desk; why it was so easy to retrieve the recording. He looks pleadingly at Barry.

"What are we gonna do?"

Barry passes his hand over his head, blows out a long breath. "I think -" he begins slowly, "I think -"

But Cisco doesn't find out what Barry thinks, because at that moment Barry's phone buzzes with an incoming message from Joe. Barry reads it quickly, throws the van door open.

"Gotta go!" he yells at Cisco, "Wally's in danger from a meta!"

And with a blur of lightning, he's gone.

Cisco's left turning his gizmo over and over in his hand, remembering Harry's screams, wondering what to do. But there's only one thing he can do, really.

Harry doesn't look up as Cisco comes back into the lab. He still doesn't look up when Cisco stands right in front of him. But when Cisco hooks his gizmo up to a speaker and Zoom's horrific voice fills the lab, he reacts immediately.

"What the fuck are you doing!" he shouts furiously, snatching up the gizmo, ripping out the speaker lead, hurling it to the floor.

Cisco backs away, raising his hands in surrender. "Whoa, take it easy, Harry."

Harry stamps on Cisco's gizmo, which springs open, spewing tiny components all over the floor. "Take it easy?" he fumes, "take it EASY? Do you know what I just went through, have you any IDEA -"

"YEAH!" Cisco shouts back, then, more quietly, "Yeah, I do, actually." He prods the shattered remains of his gizmo with his toe. "I know Zoom's threatening to torture your daughter. I know he hurt you bad."

He steps forward, holding out his arms. Harry glares at him. "If you're offering some of your _stress relief_ , Ramon," he snaps caustically, "I'm not in the mood."

Cisco's hurt, tries hard not to show it. "No, I'm not offering anything - except comfort," he says, and wraps his arms gently around Harry.

* * *

Barry, meanwhile, has arrived at a scene of chaos. The entire road seems to be rolling up before his eyes, taking the two drag-racing cars along with it. He hurtles forward, snatches Wally out of one of the cars just before it crashes. The other driver is thrown clear, but then his car somersaults over and over, breaking up, exploding out in all directions. Barry snags piece after piece of flying debris out of the air before any can hit the shocked spectators.

Finally, the only piece left is a jagged shard of glass - heading straight for Iris. Barry puts on an extra burst of speed and just manages to get his gloved fingertips to it, mere microseconds before it reaches her. 

"This could've killed you," he tells her, looking soberly at it. Then he turns, scans the area for clues to the cause of the disaster.

Joe West runs up. "It was that meta - the one Cisco calls Tar Pit. He made the whole damn road disintegrate. I tried to stop him, but he's gone."

Barry's puzzled. "Why would he target Wally?"

"I don't think he was targetting Wally," says Joe. "I think he's after the guy behind these races. Clark Bronwen. Remember when Cisco hacked into those juvie records of Monteleone - Tar Pit - and that crew he hung with? Iris recognised Bronwen from his mugshot."

"Right," Barry says, nodding. "So maybe Bronwen was involved with those guys who dropped Monteleone into boiling tar the night the particle accelerator exploded, and now Tar Pit's out for revenge on them all."

"Any ideas on stopping him?"

Barry shrugs. "Not really. I know Cisco was working on something, but I'm not sure how he's doing." He suddenly remembers the whole problem of Harry, and Zoom's threats, and Cisco's feelings for Harry.

"I better get back to S.T.A.R. Labs."

* * *

When Cisco puts his arms around Harry, it feels like embracing a block of wood, or the statue of a man. He's so rigid, so utterly unwelcoming, that Cisco would be discouraged if he didn't realise that, in part at least, this is down to shock.

"Come on," he says, "back to my place. Let me take care of you."

At first he thinks Harry is going to refuse, that he'll continue his impersonation of a statue until Cisco gives up and goes away. But maybe Harry senses Cisco's determination to do no such thing: he eventually gives a full-body shudder, nods, and allows Cisco to lead him out to the van; half-an-hour later, he's sitting in front of Cisco's fire sipping hot chocolate, while Cisco stands behind him carefully massaging his shoulders.

Eventually Harry sighs, finishes his drink with a loud slurp, puts his mug down on the floor. "Cisco -" he begins. But he's interrupted by the buzzing of Cisco's phone.

Cisco thumbs it on, holds it to his ear with one hand while the other still rests comfortingly on Harry's shoulder.

"Oh, hi Barry. No, I'm home. Harry? He's here too. Um, I don't think - hang on, I'll check with him."

"What?" asks Harry.

"Barry wants to come round and talk to us. I'll tell him no, shall I?"

Harry groans. "No. I need to talk to him, too. Tell him to come over."

Barry arrives within seconds of Cisco relaying this; he looks suspiciously at Harry. "You first."

Harry rubs his neck, winces with remembered pain. "We don't have as much time as we thought," he says harshly. "Zoom's jonesing for more speedforce - he wants it NOW."

"O-kay," says Barry, "and how do you aim to give it to him?"

Harry barks out a totally unamused laugh. "The question's moot, Allen. You'll be on your guard now you've found out about -" he waves his hand helplessly. "This."

"Say we hadn't," presses Barry. "What would you have done?"

"Invent a device to siphon off your speed when you connect to the speedforce." He sees the murderous look on Barry's face and adds hastily, "Not much! I was only gonna take about two percent."

"Two percent..." muses Barry. " _Only_ two percent." His voice rises indignantly. "If I'd lost even two percent of my speed just now, Iris might be dead."

"And what about Harry's daughter?" Cisco tightens his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Her life matters, too."

Harry shrugs him off, gets up, strides over to the door. "That's my fight, not yours," he says. "Send me back to my Earth, close the breaches. All of them, so Zoom can't come to your world any more. Make an end of it." He gives Cisco a long look, as if trying to memorise his face. 

"Then you can forget I was ever on your world at all."


	13. Chapter 13

Exasperated, Barry rakes his fingers through his hair, leaving it almost as untidy as Harry's. "Don't be silly, man. We're not gonna do that. We're not gonna send you back to Earth-2."

"Why not?" Harry asks stiffly.

Barry rolls his eyes. "Well, for one thing, we haven't figured out how to close the breaches yet. Sending you back won't stop Zoom coming here."

"Yeah, but that's not the only reason," Cisco puts in hastily. "Harry's part of our team now, right Barry?"

Harry starts pacing restlessly. "I am NOT part of your... _team_. I appreciate the thought Cisco, but don't let's make this harder than it already is. Look, why don't I just -"

"It's late," Barry interrupts him, "and we've all had a hard day. Let's sleep on this, okay? We can talk things over in the morning." He punches Cisco on the shoulder, nods at Harry. "See you guys tomorrow." And he's out the door before either can reply.

Harry runs his fingers through his hair, grimaces uncertainly at Cisco. "Guess I better go, too."

Cisco steps forward, grabs his arm. "I'd like you to stay. Please?"

"Oh, hell," Harry groans. "I never meant to get... involved... with anyone on this earth."

Cisco puts his arms around him. "You know what, Harry? I'm sure glad you did."

"Huh. You're just thinking with your dick."

"Yeah, yeah. But think about it, Harry. With Zoom making everyone on Earth-2 his bitch, if you do get Jesse back, you'll hafta bring her here. To be safe."

Then, at last, Cisco feels Harry return his embrace, hears him murmur, "That dick of yours is surprisingly logical, Cisco..."

* * *

Harry uncaps his marker, scrawls another line on the board, pauses. Barry, late for this as for every briefing, slides into a chair between Caitlin and Cisco, gabbling apologies. Harry glares at him. "If you're quite ready, Allen -"

Barry speed-reads the list on the board, blinks. "What's this?" he mutters to Cisco.

"Things Harry thinks we need to do before he - _we_ go to Earth-2," Cisco mutters back.

Harry transfers the glare to Cisco. "Before I, and only I, go to _Earth-1_." He caps his marker, tosses it from hand to hand.

"You forgot something." Barry's out of his chair in an instant, plucks the marker neatly out of the air before Harry can catch it, adds a line to the list.

_Invent something to take down Tar Pit._

Harry reads this, shakes his head in irritation. "What does this have to do with me going back to my own world?"

Barry grins at him. "Because I'm going with you, and I wanna tidy things up here before I leave."

"Now see here, Allen -"

"Me too," Cisco interrupts. "I got an item to add as well."

Barry tosses him the marker; Cisco carefully writes _Improve my vibing goggles_ at the very top of the list.

Harry stares at him as if he's suddenly grown an extra head. "Vibing goggles? What the hell -?"

"Something we invented last year, when I was trying to remember that erased timeline. The one where Wells - the Reverse Flash - killed me," explains Cisco. "Caitlin got the idea from something she'd read about lucid dream therapy. I'd kinda forgotten about them till now - what with everything else going on..." His voice tails off.

Harry swears violently, snatches the marker from Cisco, hurls it across the room.

"Let's go look at them now."

* * *

"Why'd you make me come to this freaky-ass braille room, Harry?"

"For some privacy."

"Oh. I thought maybe you were gonna jump out at me dressed in the Reverse Flash's yellow suit and shout 'BOO!'. Try to trigger me."

"Funnily enough, I considered doing just that. But then I thought of a much better way."

He pulls Cisco close, hands him a pair of goggles. "I've nearly got these working the way we want them. I took what you'd done already to induce slow wave sleep, upgraded it to put you in a timed trance state. Much more controllable. All we need now -"

"- is a trigger," finishes Cisco. He moans as Harry's exploring fingers find his cock.

Some time later he goes on, "Um - Harry - not that I want you to stop or anything -"

Harry's pushed him up against one of the walls of the Time Vault and is busy unfastening Cisco's jeans.

"- but we've had sex before and it hasn't triggered any vibes -"

Harry stops what he's doing, grins at Cisco. "Yeah, but this time we're doing things _scientifically_. Put on the goggles."

"But -"

"Put on the damn goggles, Cisco!"

Cisco shrugs, settles the goggles on his nose. Wires run from them to a gadget Harry's placed on the Time Vault floor.

"What -?"

"Shh. Shh, Cisco. You're talking too much." Harry's voice is low, soothing; his hands move skilfully over Cisco's body.

"Oh, _yeah_ ," Cisco groans. He knows he's close, but can't help saying, "Harry, I'm just not vibing. Like I said, we've had sex before, and -"

Harry interrupts him. "I've not done - _this_ \- to you before," he says. And thrusts his finger into Cisco's ass.

For Cisco the world whites out; there's a rushing sound in his ears; time stops.

When he eventually comes to himself, he realises three things: his knees have given way under him, he's just vibed himself, Harry and _two_ Barrys in what he knows must be Harry's office at Earth-2 S.T.A.R. Labs -

\- and he's come all over Harry's hand.


	14. Chapter 14

Cisco gets to his feet, leans against the Time Vault wall, slowly pulls up his jeans. Harry, humming to himself under his breath, is busy wiping his hands on a wad of cotton waste; he gives Cisco a quick look and smiles. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah - I guess. I vibed."

"Uh huh." Harry tosses the cotton waste into a corner, picks up the piece of kit he'd wired to Cisco's goggles, begins scrolling through its readout.

"You know, it's gonna be a bit embarrassing if you hafta do - uh, what you just did - every time we need me to vibe."

Harry glances up from his equipment. "Oh, that shouldn't be necessary. Looks like a simple wavelength trigger should do the job." He returns to his task. "Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah, that'll be the one."

"Don't you wanna know what I vibed?"

Harry shrugs. "I assumed you'd tell me if it was important."

"Define _important_ , Harry!"

Something in Cisco's tone makes Harry look at him closely. "Cisco? In case you doubt it - that wasn't _just_ a scientific experiment for me."

Cisco starts to reply, breaks off when the door suddenly slides open. It's Barry. He looks between them, uncomfortably aware of the tension.

"Uh, sorry to interrupt, guys. But I really need Cisco's input on a way to stop Tar Pit. He just attacked again."

"Ah, yeah." It takes Cisco a moment to realise what Barry's talking about. Then: "Yeah," he repeats, more confidently. "I was thinking of making nitrous grenades to take him down. They're triggered by extreme heat, like the boiling point of asphalt extreme heat. I'll get on them right away."

"Great!" Barry slaps Cisco on the back, then looks across to Harry, who's now poking at Cisco's goggles with a small screwdriver. "Uh, Dr Wells? I think I may've found a way to close the breaches."

Harry glances up from his work, snorts disbelievingly. "Your Earth has yet to create CFL quark matter, so I don't see how you could possibly -"

"I caught up on all your science books," interrupts Barry. "Speed reading, remember? And I think the answer might be in the electromagnetic insulator of the quark matter."

Harry stares at him. "That might even work, Allen." In spite of himself, he cracks a grin. The rescue of his daughter suddenly seems that much closer.

* * *

Harry scores through another item on his list with a satisfying squeal of marker pen on glass board. Barry's insight has proved fruitful and now all the breaches are closed, bar the one in S.T.A.R. Labs basement.

"Only Tar Pit to go," a voice says behind him. Harry spins round, lightning-fast, the marker pen falling from his hand; he snatches it out of the air before it hits the ground.

"Snow! Don't creep up on me like that!"

"Sorry, Harry," apologises Caitlin. "I was saying, only Tar Pit to go. And Barry, Joe, Cisco, and a handful of nitrous grenades are out there right now dealing with him."

"Ah, good." Harry hesitates a moment, looking narrowly at Caitlin. "Actually, there is one more thing. Velocity-8."

Caitlin raises her eyebrows.

"I'd like you to try and iron out the snags while we're gone. And yeah, maybe it does have more - side-effects - than I'd originally thought." Harry looks down at his hand, which has suddenly developed a high-speed tremor. He hastily stuffs it into his jacket pocket, but not before Caitlin has seen.

"Harry," she says, concerned. "I should check you over."

"Not now, Snow," he says roughly. "When we get back from my Earth."

"But, Harry, I'm worried about possible cellular damage." Caitlin hesitates a moment, then says in a rush, "Jay didn't want me to tell anybody, but I think I should warn you. _His_ cells are damaged, due to his use of Velocity-6 in the past. In fact, if I don't find a way to reverse the damage -" She looks down, adds almost inaudibly, "- the prognosis is not good."

"You're a brilliant scientist, Snow," encourages Harry. "You'll find a way."

"I had hoped there might be a Jay Garrick on Earth-1, that I could persuade to donate healthy cells to replace Jay's damaged ones. But I couldn't find one. And then Jay -"

"Yeah?" Harry looks at her sharply.

"He told me the reason I couldn't find his doppelganger is that his counterpart on this Earth is called Hunter Zolomon, and -"

"Hunter Zolomon?" interrupts Harry, frowning. That name sounds familiar to him, somehow, and not in a good way.

"He was adopted, apparently, that's why he doesn't have the same name as Jay. But Jay also told me that his DNA was mutated when he became a speedster, so this guy's cells wouldn't help him anyway."

"Hmmm." There's something off about this, but before Harry can pin it down, they're interrupted by Barry and Cisco bursting into the lab, big grins on their faces.

"We took down Tar Pit! My grenades were so dope!"

"Yeah, we're all done. And we're ready to go to Earth-2!"

* * *

They aren't, of course. Harry fumes impotently as first Cisco goes off to cram his jacket pockets full of an unlikely collection of objects he thinks are essential for the trip, and then Barry decides he has to go socialise with his foster family.

His fingernails are all but bitten off by the time Allen returns.

 _Finally_ they stand together in the S.T.A.R. Labs basement.

"I still think I should be coming with you," Jay objects.

" _No_ , Garrick," rasps Harry. "Like I said, we need you on this end of the speed cannon. In case anything goes wrong."

Caitlin takes Jay's arm. " _Please_ , Jay. I need you here."

Jay nods reluctantly, steps back to the speed cannon's controls. "All right, Barry, listen to me. You're about to go through the looking glass. You're gonna see things that look and feel familiar, but they're not. Up is down. Black is white. Do _not_ let yourself get sucked in emotionally. Good luck."

Barry takes a deep breath. "Okay."

"Once I turn the speed cannon on, the three of you will be able to pass through unharmed, but Barry, you need to make sure you keep your speed up."

Cisco's suddenly panicked. "I - I got no spit."

Harry thinks it's just another of Cisco's movie references, and smirks; they have this one on his Earth, too. "Jaws."

"I'm not just quoting Jaws! I mean my mouth is really dry right now."

Harry glances sideways at him, squeezes his hand briefly with a warm, comforting clasp. "You'll be okay, Cisco," he whispers. "I'll make sure of that."


	15. Chapter 15

Harry looks from Cisco to Barry. "Look, you guys don't need to do this. It really is just my fight."

Barry shakes his head determinedly. "Nope. We already discussed this. Whether you like it or not, we are a team now, Harry."

Cisco nods, swallows convulsively, his mouth still dry. "Yeah," he chokes out. "A. Team."

"Are you guys gonna do this or not?" Jay sounds impatient.

"Yeah." Barry grabs Harry and Cisco by their collars, gets ready to run. "Let's go."

The journey through the breach is every bit as trippy as Cisco expects: it's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to him, and that includes the time Dante persuaded him to drop a tab of acid when they were kids. He stumbles as they emerge into a new world, and Harry steadies him with a firm hand under his elbow.

Harry's eyes are shining as he looks around. "Welcome to Earth 2."

Barry and Cisco gawp at the alien cityscape. Their awe increases as Harry leads them through the S.T.A.R. Labs lobby. 

"Wow!"

"Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

"This is _amazing_. Half these things are just ideas on our Eart- uh -" Barry guiltily claps his hand over his mouth, looks around to see if anyone's overheard.

Harry, striding ahead eager to reach his office and get started on the search for Zoom, suddenly realises he's alone; looking back, he sees Barry and Cisco taking selfies in front of the Earth-2 S.T.A.R. Labs logo. Swearing under his breath, he hurries back.

"What are you two doing? You aren't kids on a school outing! Get your asses in gear. NOW!"

Grumbling, Cisco puts away his phone and they follow Harry to his office, which is where everything starts to go wrong. Try as he might, Cisco is unable to vibe Zoom's whereabouts. Is unable, in fact, to vibe anything at all.

"I don't understand," he says, pulling off his goggles and staring at them helplessly. "Did I lose my powers coming through the breach?"

"How could you lose your powers? I didn't lose my powers," objects Barry.

"Oh!" Cisco exclaims suddenly. "The wavelength trigger's not responding. But that means -"

"A different frequency! Of course!" Harry smacks himself on the forehead. "Our two Earths vibrate at different frequencies, Ramon." He glares at him with something the hapless Cisco interprets as hatred. "There was no point bringing you here at all."

* * *

Barry, who's been idly staring at the vertical TV screen on the office wall to avoid having to look at Harry's furious face or Cisco's unhappy one, suddenly comes to attention.

"Hey, that's me!"

The man on the screen is indeed identical to Barry, although wearing gold-rimmed glasses and dressier clothes. He seems to be giving some kind of prepared statement.

"- and we understand that the citizens of Central City are scared, but I can assure you that the CCPD has been working diligently under the leadership of Detective West. We will stop Zoom. That's a promise."

"Detective West!" exclaims Cisco. "So Joe's still a cop here."

"Yeah, but more importantly, I'm still a CSI," Barry says. "I have a plan." And he's off, in a swirl of loose papers.

Harry barely has time to complain about Barry messing up his tidy office before he's back. And he's not alone.

His companion is clearly rattled. "What just happened?"

Cisco looks from one to the other of them. "Oh-ho-ho, doppelganger!"

"W-w-wait, how did I get here?" stammers the newcomer. "Wh-what - wh-who are you? How do you look like me?"

Harry sighs, exasperated. "Allen, what the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Barry's doppelganger gapes at him. "Harrison Wells? _The_ Harrison Wells? Oh my God, am I in S.T.A.R. Labs?" He looks wide-eyed around the office, beams at Harry. "Okay, I have no idea what is going on here, but I've always wanted to meet you. Your thesis on string phenomenology was revolutionary to me."

Harry raises an eyebrow. Barry mutters to him, gesturing at his doppelganger, who is babbling on excitedly, unaware of their low-voiced conversation.

"I had the magazine laminated so I could keep it -"

"Just let me knock him out, okay? Then I can take his place, find out what they know about Zoom."

"- I so want to be like you, Dr Wells -"

"No need, Allen. This guy'll do whatever I ask. Just listen to him. He's a total fanboy."

* * *

Harry's right, of course. No sooner do they tell Barry-2 who they are and what they want then he straightway takes them across town to his forensics lab in the CCPD precinct. As they walk in, they see a woman in cop's uniform sitting waiting for him. The others stare, stunned, as he walks across to her and kisses her.

"Meet my wife, Detective Iris West," he says proudly. "Iris, this is _the_ Dr Harrison Wells, of S.T.A.R. Labs, and - uh -"

"Cisco Ramon," says Cisco, looking bemused. "So - _you're_ Detective West? What, isn't Joe a cop on this Earth?"

"What are you talking about? My dad's a singer." She suddenly gets a good look at Barry; her jaw drops. "Who the hell are _you_?"

Barry gestures helplessly. "Uh - Barry Allen?"

His doppelganger chimes in excitedly. "Okay, Iris, I know this may be hard to believe, but I mean, it's just like that sci-fi series, _Commander Carl, Space Marshal of the Galaxy_ , where Carl gets sucked into a black hole and ends up on another planet that he thinks is Earth, but really it's Earth of another universe." He takes in their blank expressions, shakes his head. "Have you guys not seen -? Oh, it's a seminal episode. You should check it out."

Iris narrows her eyes. "You're saying he's from another planet?"

"No, actually," says Barry. "I'm from Earth - it's just not _your_ Earth."

Harry's getting more and more impatient. "Focus, guys," he says. "Zoom has my daughter. That's why we're here. We need your help to find -"

"His lair," Cisco interjects helpfully.

Harry rolls his eyes. " _Lair_?"

"Hey, he's a bad guy. I'm calling it a lair."

Iris-2 shakes her head. "Look, I want to find Zoom as much as anybody, but no one can track him. The only person who might know where he would be keeping a prisoner would be a meta that's worked with him."

Barry-2, meanwhile, has been busy at his computer. "Like one of these guys?" He turns his screen to show them a picture. "Two of Zoom's most notorious sidekicks."

Harry puts on his glasses. "Ah. Oh. Doesn't that one look rather like -"

"Caitlin!" gasps Barry. "And Ronnie!"

"I don't believe it! Caitlin and Ronnie, evil metahumans?" Cisco stares at the picture and its caption in disbelief.

"Known as Killer Frost and Deathstorm."


	16. Chapter 16

"Yeah. Killer Frost and Deathstorm. Wanted on multiple counts of murder and armed robbery," says Iris. "And it just so happens one of my snitches has given me a lead on their location, and when my partner gets here we're gonna go out and bring 'em in."

"Want me to check that out?" asks Barry-2. "I've been working on an algorithm to give an approximate location for any given metahuman. It should work on most metas, except for Zoom of course. He's too fast; never leaves a trace." His fingers rattle expertly over his computer keyboard. "Um. There's just one problem. This CPU doesn't have the power to compile all the data in under, um, three hours? Maybe longer."

"We don't have that time to play with," says Iris. Her pager bleeps. "Uh-uh. That'll be my partner now."

Harry puts his hand lightly on Barry-2's shoulder. "Why don't you come back to S.T.A.R. Labs with me," he suggests. "We can interface with your meta database remotely, and my computers are much more powerful than yours."

"I'm gonna follow up on my snitch's lead anyway." Iris takes her gun out of its holster, checks it over. "If it's a bust, maybe we can try wherever you guys come up with at S.T.A.R. Labs."

Cisco takes in how close Harry's standing to Barry-2, how Barry-2 lights up when he looks at Harry; tries not to feel jealous. "Need any help hacking into the CSI database from S.T.A.R. Labs?"

Harry spares him a brief glance. "Nope. We can manage." He returns all his attention to Barry-2.

Cisco grinds his teeth. "Okay," he says. "Then maybe I better come with you, Detective West. I've had experience with metas on my Earth, and I brought a device which could help against the likes of, um, Killer Frost." He delves into his jacket, produces a squat black object.

Barry grins at him. "So you didn't just fill your pockets with Twizzlers, huh?"

* * *

Cisco follows the two cops into the deserted warehouse. Detective Iris West originally objected to having him along, citing his civilian status, but he managed to persuade her that he alone can operate his anti-meta device. She hasn't let Barry join them, but Cisco is sure he's lurking somewhere nearby, ready for action.

 _Civilian or not,_ Cisco muses, _I can't be any worse than her partner_. Iris's partner Detective Lawton, who couldn't even load his gun without dropping shells all over the floor, and who the other cops call 'Deadshot' because he is, apparently, the reverse.

But Cisco's big worry at the moment - bigger than having an incompetent cop as back-up, bigger even than finding out that two of his best friends have evil versions on this Earth - is the way Harry is acting. That bastard was all but _flirting_ with Earth-2's version of Barry Allen. Cisco knows it's so he can get Barry-2 to do what he wants, but that doesn't make it any better. In fact it makes things worse, because it puts a question mark over Cisco's own relationship with Harry. Suppose the guy's just been using him, too?

His brooding is brought to an abrupt end when Iris's meta-alarm watch suddenly beeps, heralding the arrival of Killer Frost and Deathstorm, who are so fast they get the drop on the three of them and force them to lay down their weapons. Cisco looks unhappily at Deathstorm, so like and yet unlike his dead friend Ronnie, and Killer Frost, still recognisably Caitlin in spite of her blonde hair and evil smirk. "I can't believe you two work for Zoom," he blurts.

Suddenly, someone else emerges from the shadows, declares, "No, they work for me. _I_ work for Zoom."

"Who the hell are you?" demands Cisco, then gets a better look at him. His jaw drops. "Doppel -"

"-ganger," finishes the newcomer. He narrows his eyes at Cisco. "I knew you were coming here even before you entered the breach. See, we're all... connected. Francisco."

Cisco's reeling from the shock of discovering he, too, has an evil counterpart on Earth-2 - and one who seems to already know him. But he doesn't know everything. Cisco sticks out his chin, declares defiantly, "My name is Vibe."

His doppelganger ducks his head in a mock bow. "Reverb."

Cisco raises his eyebrows. "Actually, not the worst name you could've come up with. But not the best."

Reverb shrugs. "I've been watching you, Vibe, and I have to say I'm extremely disappointed. You don't even know how powerful you are. All you use your powers for are cheap parlour tricks when you could be a god. _We_ could be gods."

Cisco's voice rises in disbelief. "Are you Cloud City Vadering me right now?"

Killer Frost has been listening to their exchange with increasing alarm. "Are you outta your mind, Reverb? Let's turn them over to Zoom."

Reverb turns on her menacingly. "Speak to me like that again and I will shatter your entire nervous system without breaking a sweat." He produces a pair of goggles similar to Cisco's own, puts them on. "So, Vibe. Do you wanna run Central City? What do you say?"

"I say - _Flash! Save us!_ "

* * *

Harry and Barry-2 are working companiably side-by-side in the Earth-2 S.T.A.R. Labs cortex. Barry-2 eventually pushes his chair back from his workstation, lets out a long sigh. "Looks like Iris's snitch was on the money. My algorithm puts both Killer Frost and Deathstorm in the vicinity of that warehouse."

"Uh-huh." Harry glances sideways at Barry-2. "You look worried."

"Um, yeah. There's more." Barry-2 hesitates a moment. "Have you heard of a meta called Reverb?"

Harry nods, looking wary.

"So you know he's the doppelganger of your friend Cisco Ramon. Um. Have you warned Cisco about him?"

"Nope. Didn't see the point." Seeing Barry-2's raised eyebrows, Harry goes on defensively, "What? He's a totally different guy. Just because they look alike -"

"Well, maybe you should've," interrupts Barry-2. "Because my algorithm puts Reverb in the vicinity of that warehouse, too."

"It's - I'm -" Harry rakes his fingers through his hair, frowning, trying to decide what to say. When his lab assistant Henry Hewitt rushes in, he turns to him in relief at the interruption. Relief which rapidly turns to consternation at what Henry's telling him.

"Have you seen the news flash on Channel 52? You're not safe here, Dr Wells. Zoom is looking for you."

Harry exchanges an alarmed glance with Barry-2, raps out a quick series of orders. "Alert security, Henry. Evacuate S.T.A.R. Labs. Lock down the facility."

"What about you and your friend, Dr Wells?"

Harry picks up his gun, checks it's fully charged. "Don't worry about us, Henry. Just get everyone out of here now. NOW! GO!"

Henry's no sooner left than someone else rushes in. Harry jerks up his weapon, preparing to fire; lowers it as he recognises Cisco, alone. "Dammit! Where's our Barry?"

"Zoom took him!" gasps Cisco.

" _What_?"

"We tracked down Deathstorm and Killer Frost, met my doppelganger, Reverb - super evil guy, super evil powers." Cisco sounds almost admiring. "The three of them almost took down Barry until Zoom showed up, killed Cisco-2, killed Deathstorm for hurting a speedster. But then he left Killer Frost alive and took off with Barry."

As Cisco's gabbling out his story, Harry's fingers are performing an intricate dance over his computer keyboard. Now he looks up, frowning. "How are _you_ still alive?"

Cisco shrugs. "Looks like he cares even less about me than you do, Harry."

Harry's eyes narrow, but before he can say anything a klaxon sounds and red alerts flash on every screen in the cortex. He immediately stabs his finger down on his keyboard, shoulders his gun. "Time to go."

"Wait, wait, w-what is going on?" Barry-2 dithers, wide-eyed and panicky.

"Zoom is here! We have to hide. NOW!" Harry grabs Barry-2's hand, hauls him to his feet, tows him out of the cortex. At the door he looks over his shoulder, flashes Cisco a quick grin. "C'mon, Crisco."

Warmed by this, Cisco hurries down the corridor after them. But he can't help remembering his misgivings that Harry may merely be using him to help find his daughter.

 _Guess I'll find out if - when - we rescue her,_ thinks Cisco. _If he dumps me_. He tries to ignore the nasty little voice that's suggesting maybe Harry already has.


	17. Chapter 17

Harry skids to a halt beside a part of the corridor wall which looks to Cisco identical to every other part. But when Harry places his palm against it and a hidden door slides open, he realises what it must be.

"Evil Wells's Time Vault!" Cisco gasps. "You have one too?"

"I'm an enemy of Zoom," Harry says shortly, ushering them inside. "I need a place to hide."

" _Evil_ Wells?" Barry-2 sounds shocked.

"Long story -" begins Cisco.

"- which you don't have time to tell right now," interrupts Harry impatiently. "Get in here and _keep quiet_." He herds Barry-2 and Cisco over to the far corner and activates a fake wall, sealing the three of them off from the rest of the room. They huddle together, hardly daring to breathe.

Soon they hear a noise on the other side of the fake wall and then Zoom's low, evil voice. "Come out... _Wellssss_. I know you're hiding."

Harry mouths "He's bluffing," and puts his hand firmly over Barry-2's mouth to suppress his whimpers. And it seems Harry's right; after some crashing around and cursing, all is quiet. Harry hefts his gun just in case Zoom's lurking in ambush, deactivates the fake wall.

"Oh thank God, he's gone," babbles Barry-2.

"He's not gonna fall for another fake wall," Harry says grimly. "We need to move. We need to find a different place to hide and make a plan. We still have to find his -" flickering glance at Cisco, "- lair. Preferably while he's still away from it looking for me."

"Well, check these out," says Cisco, producing a pair of goggles from his jacket. "I jacked these from Reverb after Zoom hand-shanked him. I think we can tweak 'em to track Zoom to his lair."

Harry impatiently grabs them from him, stuffs them into his pocket. "Not here, not now. We have to find someplace to hide." He doesn't _say_ "you just want my finger up your arse again", but Cisco's sure he's thinking it.

Barry-2 nods vigorously. "Yes. We should go to the police precinct. I need to know that my wife is safe."

* * *

Husband and wife greet each other with relief in the CCPD lobby, then they all go upstairs to the CSI lab to work on a plan. Cisco again mentions tweaking Reverb's goggles, but Harry brushes him off.

"Take too long, need equipment we don't have," he says tersely. "Maybe later, Cisco. Right now our best bet is to find Killer Frost again, get her to give us the location of Zoom's lair."

Iris West shakes her head dubiously. "Zoom kept her alive when he killed Deathstorm and Reverb, because she always obeys him. There's no way she's gonna tell you where he is."

"I'm not so sure about that," Cisco muses. "If she loved Deathstorm as much as my Caitlin loved Ronnie, I think she'd be more than upset at Zoom for killing him. No, the problem is finding _her_ , if we don't have access to the S.T.A.R. Labs computers."

"But we do," smirks Harry, holding up his arm, tapping his watch. "I left a script running at S.T.A.R. Labs to track her and update me with her current best known location."

"Smart!" Barry-2 says admiringly. So admiringly, that his wife rolls her eyes. Ignoring her, he leans over, examines Harry's watch. "Is that the latest update? When did it come in?"

"Couple of minutes ago."

Barry-2 takes Harry's wrist, tilts it to get a better view of the watch. "This is so awesome, Dr Wells. I've seen your meta-detector watches before, of course, but this has _so many more_ facilities." He gazes at Harry with shining eyes. Harry smirks back at him complacently.

Iris-2 says under her breath to Cisco, "Don't worry, he gets like this sometimes when he meets one of his heroes. It doesn't mean anything."

Cisco isn't so sure, but forces a smile anyway.

"Looks like this places Killer Frost in the woodlands," says Barry-2.

Harry jumps to his feet, shoulders his gun, all but quivering with impatience. "Then what are we waiting for, guys? Let's go!"

* * *

It takes a while to find Killer Frost, even longer to convince her to help them. But a combination of their guns and a pep talk from Cisco about 'his' Caitlin and her husband Ronnie eventually seems to do the trick, and she leads them to Ascension Cliffs. Here, the skeletal remains of an elevated railroad system disappear into a hole near the top of the sheer rock face. Killer Frost points up at it.

"That's where you wanna go. Zoom's lair is in there."

" _Wow_ ," Cisco breathes. "It's the Cliffs of Insanity!" He looks sideways at Killer Frost. "So how _do_ we get up there?"

She smirks at him. "I can make you something to climb on, darling."

And she's as good as her word, firing bolts of ice up the cliff to form a slippery stairway. Barry-2 baulks at first, whining about the lack of tread on his wingtip shoes, but as soon as his wife threatens to leave him behind he shuts up and starts to climb. They all have difficulty, skidding and sliding on the ice, but at last they reach the top and enter the disused train station which Zoom has commandeered for his lair. There they find three cells with two expected, and one unexpected, occupants: Barry, Jesse, and an unknown in a metal mask.

Harry immediately rushes over to his daughter, shouting "stand clear!" as he blasts the cell wall apart with his weapon. Next minute father and daughter are in each other's arms. Cisco watches with mixed feelings. He's happy for Harry, of course he is, but he can't help but wonder how having Jesse back is going to affect Harry's attitude to himself.

_Enough with the self pity, dude,_ he admonishes himself. _More important things to do here,_ and turns to Killer Frost. "Some help, please?" he asks her, indicating Barry's cell.

She shrugs, fires bolts of ice at Barry's cell wall, looks puzzled when they have no effect.

"What's going on?" asks Iris-2. "Why isn't it working?"

"I don't know," says Killer Frost. "I've never had this problem before."

"Dr Wells?" asks Barry.

Harry comes over, examines the wall. "Carbyne," he pronounces. "The cell's made of carbyne. Freezing it won't work; nor will my gun." He fires a burst to prove it. "You'll have to phase out of there, Allen."

"I can't! I tried already, but the different frequency of this Earth -"

While Harry and Barry-2 try to convince Barry that he can indeed phase out of the cell, that it's his only chance, Jesse gets a closer look at Cisco.

"You know, you look just like an intern my dad had at S.T.A.R. Labs a few years ago!"

Cisco's still processing the implications of this when Zoom appears.


	18. Chapter 18

Zoom swirls into his lair in an aura of blue lightning and black menace, and confronts Barry. Having finally succeeded in phasing out of his own cell, Barry is now attempting to phase into the remaining prisoner's cell in order to rescue him, but Zoom soon puts a stop to that.

"He's not going anywhere." Zoom's voice oozes like toxic black treacle. "And neither are any of you." He turns to Killer Frost. "Thank you for bringing them to me."

This betrayal hits Cisco the hardest. Already reeling from the information that his doppelganger interned at Earth-2 S.T.A.R. Labs before he got his powers - and why had Harry kept _that_ piece of information from him? - having Caitlin's doppelganger turn on them is the last straw. His voice is aching with hurt as he shouts at her, "You double-crossed us? What were you thinking? He killed Ronnie!"

Killer Frost sneers at him. "Guess my heart is as cold as you thought after all."

"Let the others go, Zoom," pleads Barry. "All you need is me if you're gonna take my speed."

"And me," adds Harry, "to collect it for you. Let everyone else go!"

"You're right," Zoom says with an evil chuckle. "I may not be able to kill you two yet, but I can kill _them_." And he immediately grabs Jesse by the throat. "I told you I'd kill you in front of your father," he gloats.

""NO!!" Jesse screams. Her scream chokes off into a strangled gurgle as Zoom hoists her into the air.

Killer Frost looks at her, hesitates, then suddenly unleashes a storm of icicles on Zoom, who drops Jesse in surprise.

"Get outta here!" Killer Frost gasps, "I can't hold him for long." She's now standing over Zoom, busily encasing him in a solid block of ice.

For a moment it's as if everyone else is frozen, too. Then they all start to move: Harry grabs his daughter's hand, pulls her to her feet, tows her towards the exit; Barry-2 and Iris-2 are close behind them. Cisco looks back at Killer Frost and mouths a heartfelt "thankyou" before following them. Only Barry's left, standing stubbornly beside the cell of the man in the iron mask.

"I'm not leaving without him."

* * *

He does, of course, although it takes their combined efforts to make him, and soon they're all back at the Earth-2 S.T.A.R. Labs.

Barry-2 looks the most shaken by his experience. His wife eyes him in concern. "Are you okay?"

"Ye-e-a-a-h," he blows out on a long breath. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"The two of you need to get outa Central City," Barry tells them. "Anyplace you can hide from Zoom?"

"Um, sure," says Iris-2. "We have family in Atlantis that can help us."

Barry turns to Harry and Jesse. "You guys need to get someplace safe, too. Where will you go?"

"Only place we can go," Harry says tersely, beginning to pack books and lab equipment into a satchel. "Back to your Earth."

"D-a-a-d!" Jesse wails in protest. "We can't just _leave_."

"We have to, honey," says Harry, pushing another book into his bag.

Jesse's voice rises angrily. "What, you want me to leave everything I have here? My friends, my family? I mean - my _life_!"

"You don't have a life here anymore," Harry rasps brutally. "Neither do I. Zoom is too powerful: I can't stop him. And as long as he is here, he's gonna hunt - us - down - until - we - are - DEAD."

His last words are punctuated by the blasts of a warning klaxon: red lights flash ALERT signs all around. Barry hustles Cisco and Jesse towards the breach opening, yelling over his shoulder, "Wells, if you're coming with us, we have to go!"

He gets them through the breach, zips back to collect Harry. Cisco and Jesse stumble out of the breach opening into Earth-1 S.T.A.R. Labs, where Joe, Iris and Jay are waiting for them.

"Get ready to close the breach for good!" Cisco shouts. "Zoom's coming!"

Jay hefts the implosion device, getting ready to hurl it into the breach. There's a tense silence.

"It shouldn't be taking this long!" Cisco mutters. He should have stayed, should have made sure Harry was safe: what would he do without his lover? He becomes aware that Jesse is watching him with a very odd look on her face. Surely he didn't say that aloud?

Then Barry appears, his arm around Harry's shoulders, shouting "Close it! Close it now!"

They're no sooner clear than Jay steps forward, hurls the implosion device, smiles triumphantly as the breach begins to close. It's over.

\- And then Zoom's questing hand appears through the closing aperture, punches brutally through Jay's chest and yanks him away, leaving the others, stunned into silence, staring at the empty space where the breach used to be.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, the members of Team Flash all deal with Jay's death in their different ways. Caitlin, devasted by his loss, withdraws into herself and pushes away any offers of sympathy. Cisco, reminded of Killer Frost's emotional coldness, worries about her but doesn't know how he can help. Harry is secretly delighted that Jay is gone, but manages to conceal his feelings from the rest of the team. And Barry? Barry runs...

He runs the streets of Central City, catching criminals. He runs on water, generating lightning to take down King Shark, escaped from the A.R.G.U.S. aquarium. But most of all he runs to train, to get faster. Because in spite of what Harry says, Barry is determined to find a way back to Earth-2, to take down Zoom, to rescue the man in the iron mask.

Eventually, though, even he admits he needs a break - and Cisco convinces Team Flash to go clubbing. Not Harry, of course: the evil reputation of Thawne/Wells keeps him mainly tied to S.T.A.R. Labs. And it takes a lot of argument from Jesse to convince him to let her go with them. Even then he has a proviso to make.

"You need to take protection," he tells her, removing his watch from his wrist.

"D-a-a-d! I'm only going dancing - oh." She sees the watch he's holding out to her. "Oh, right. Your meta-human alarm app."

"That's right. Why, what did you think I meant?"

"Oh, nothing." Jesse accepts the watch, straps it to her wrist. It seems a small price to pay to get her dad off her case.

But in the club they go to, the watch soon becomes embarrassing, beeping every few minutes. The last straw is when it interrupts Jesse's conversation with Wally West, who she thinks is really cute.

"Excuse me, guys," she says, heading for the ladies room. "Gotta power my watch."

Locked in a cubicle, safe from prying eyes, Jesse sets to work with a small nail file. "You just beeped your last beep, pal."

But her manipulations have an unexpected effect; her father's watch suddenly starts playing back an audio file. Jesse's cheeks heat as she realises what she's hearing - the moans and gasps of two guys having sex. Then it gets worse. Much worse. Distorted by passion though it is, she still recognises her father's voice as he growls, " Come for me, Cisco. Come for me NOW. "

And then the unmistakable sounds of Cisco doing just that.

All thoughts of dancing forgotten, Jesse shoves the watch into the depths of her handbag and prepares to head back to S.T.A.R. Labs.

Her dad has a _lot_ of explaining to do.


	19. Chapter 19

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Jesse finds her father at a work bench and thrusts his watch under his nose. "Guess what I stumbled across just now, Dad!" she accuses, tapping the audio replay control. The lab is immediately filled with the sounds of Cisco moaning uncontrollably in the throes of passion. She's never seen her father look so disconcerted.

"Uh - it's - um. I -" Harry stabs his finger down on the watch, cutting it off mid-moan. "I - I never meant for you to hear that. Hell, I didn't know it was on there!" He rakes his fingers through his hair, scowls, sweeps a pile of books off the bench top in frustration. "Must've happened when I synced it with my phone," he mutters.

"Never mind how it got on there!" Jesse glares at him. "I'm right, aren't I, Dad? It's you and Cisco having sex?"

In spite of himself, a reminiscent smirk twitches Harry's lips. "Yeah."

His self-satisfied tone does nothing to calm Jesse down. "How _could_ you, Dad?" she exclaims. "Oh, I know about the casual sex you've had with your S.T.A.R. Labs interns sometimes. But this -"

"Wait, what?" Harry's eyebrows shoot up. "You know about the interns?"

Jesse heaves an exasperated sigh. "D-a-a-a-d. Everyone at our S.T.A.R. Labs knows about the interns."

Harry buries his head in his hands, refusing to look at his daughter. She puts her hand on his shoulder.

"I didn't really mind, Dad. I was a bit upset when I first found out, but I soon got over it. After all, it was just casual sex, wasn't it? It's not like you were trying to replace Mom or anything."

There's a long silence. Harry's voice is muffled as he replies, "Your mother was the only woman I've ever been in love with, Jesse."

* * *

Meanwhile in the nightclub, Cisco is having fun on the dance floor, waving his arms in the air, whipping his hair from side to side, totally uninhibited. The thought crosses his mind that he wishes Harry could be here too, but he pushes it firmly away: he's here to enjoy himself.

Suddenly loud screams ring out over the dance music; Cisco turns sharply, sees a red blur streaking amongst the crowd. Barry? But no, Barry's sitting at a table near the bar, talking to Iris. So who is it? And why?

Then the red blur's gone, leaving confusion behind. There are loud shouts from the indignant clientele. 

"My wallet!" 

"My purse has gone!" 

"What the fuck?" 

"It was The Flash!"

Cisco makes his way across the dance floor to Barry's table. "What the hell just happened, man?"

Barry shrugs. "Another speedster. And I'm gonna get the blame for what they just did."

"Do you think it was a meta Zoom's sent to fuck with us?" asks Cisco.

"Maybe. But he usually sends them to try and kill me, not make me out to be a petty thief."

Cisco nods absently, scanning the crowded dance floor; he suddenly realises something. "Hey, where's Jesse?"

"I saw her coming out of the ladies room a while back," says Iris. "She looked upset, but when I asked if I could do anything, she said no, she had to get back to S.T.A.R. Labs."

"Oh, not good!" Cisco exclaims. "Harry'll kill me if anything happens to Jesse. I was supposed to be keeping an eye on her."

"Relax," says Barry. "She's a smart girl, she'll be okay."

"I'm gonna look for her anyway," declares Cisco. "With a new meta on the loose, who knows what might go down?"

"Do you want me to -" begins Barry.

But Cisco's already gone.

* * *

Jesse is getting increasingly frustrated; trying to get straight answers from her father is like wringing blood from the proverbial stone.

"I keep telling you I didn't mind about your interns," she says, "but this -" gesturing towards Harry's watch, lying on the bench in front of them, "- this is different. It _sounds_ different. It sounds like you really care about him."

"And would it matter to you if I do?" asks Harry. "Surely you're not homophobic. Not my Jesse."

"Of course not, Dad!" Jesse's stung by the accusation. "It would be just as bad if it was - oh, Caitlin, instead of Cisco."

Harry raises an eyebrow. "So what's your problem with Dr Snow? I thought you liked her."

"Stop trying to change the subject, Dad!"

"Jesse. Don't you think you may be overreacting to this?" And Harry in turn gestures towards his watch.

" _What?!_ I find out my father is having an affair with a young guy half his age, and you think I'm _overreacting_?" Jesse clenches and unclenches her hands in frustration. "Dad, it's like I barely recognise you. You're seriously thinking of replacing my mom with _Cisco_?"

"Jesse. I. It's not." Harry splutters helplessly, lost for words.

"It's him or me, Dad!" Jesse's on the verge of hysteria now. "Do you think I can stand to watch you around him, knowing what I know? If you don't break up with him, I'm leaving town."

Harry holds his hands out to his daughter, pleading. "Jesse. Honey. You said you didn't mind about those interns. I don't see what's so different."

Jesse gives him an exasperated look. "Of course it's different, Dad! Henry Hewitt explained about that to me when I first found out about them. That you had a very high-powered, demanding job as head of S.T.A.R. Labs, and sex with your interns was just stress relief."

Harry scrubs his hands across his face, blows out a long breath. "Jesse. Here's the thing -"

But before he can get any further, Harry's interrupted by a voice from the doorway.

"What's this about stress relief?"

It's Cisco.


	20. Chapter 20

Harry, confronted by both his daughter and his lover - and yes, he admits it now, Cisco _is_ his lover - feels as if he's about to explode. He looks at the work bench in front of him, but it's already swept clear: nothing to throw, nothing to vent his frustrations on. Except for his watch. He picks it up and hurls it across the room.

It lands at Cisco's feet; he automatically stoops and picks it up. Then stands there, staring at it unseeingly, while Jesse's words replay in his head.

_...you had a very high-powered, demanding job as head of S.T.A.R. Labs, and sex with your interns was just stress relief..._

Stress relief. Cisco's back in their S.T.A.R. Labs infirmary, remembering the look on Harry's face as he pressed against him, the hard length of his cock like an iron bar against Cisco's belly. Remembering the urgent need in his voice as he murmured, _So, Frisco, you gonna give me some stress relief?_. And he'd done it, he'd sucked Harry off, the first time ever he'd given a blow job. He can still feel Harry's cock plundering his mouth, taste the hot salty semen shooting down his throat.

It hurts to realise he's just another in a long line of guys who've done the exact same thing for Harrison Wells.

Cisco winces as a thought strikes him. Could his own doppelganger have been one of those guys? What was it Jesse said as they were escaping from Earth-2 - that he looked just like an intern her dad had had a few years back? Then an even worse thought: that vibe of his which had started off this whole thing with Harrison Wells. The vibe where he saw himself making out with Harrison in the S.T.A.R. Labs infirmary. What if it wasn't a future vision of himself with Harry he'd seen, after all?

What if it was his doppelganger?

Cisco can't bear the thought; can't bear to talk to Harry or Jesse, both of whom seem to be glaring at him accusingly. He turns and leaves the lab without another word, Harry's watch clasped unnoticed in his hand.

* * *

Things are awkward around S.T.A.R. Labs next day. Barry's worried about the new speedster in town, who seems intent on trashing his reputation; Jesse isn't talking to her father, and Cisco is avoiding both of them. But they tacitly agree to put their problems aside while they help Barry to solve his.

They discuss where the speedster could have come from, and Caitlin reveals she succeeded in upgrading Harry's speed serum to Velocity-9 while the others were on Earth-2. "Jay took it to save the city from a metahuman," she tells them.

"Well done, Snow," Harry congratulates her. "I knew you could do it."

Barry isn't so pleased, demands to know why they've kept it from him, claims it could have helped him take down Zoom. He seems only partially convinced by Caitlin and Harry's arguments about how dangerous it is.

"But the thing is," Caitlin says, a worried frown on her face, "I was having some problems with it, so I got onto an ex-colleague at Mercury Labs for some help. Eliza Harmon."

Seeing the looks on the others' faces, she adds defensively, "I didn't give her the full formula!"

"Could she reverse engineer it from what you told her?" asks Cisco.

Caitlin looks thoughtful. "Well, maybe. Eliza's a genius. I'd say it would be way out of character for her to do this, though."

But Caitlin's wrong, as they find out when Eliza, as her alter ego Trajectory, storms into S.T.A.R. Labs, locks Barry in the pipeline and demands more V-9. And since she's just hurled Joe across the lab and is holding his gun on Jesse, Harry immediately caves and agrees to make it for her.

After that it's shock piled upon shock for the team. Jesse's left convulsing on the floor after Trajectory injected her with pure V-9 to check Caitlin hasn't laced it with sedative. Trajectory herself is off to create more mayhem; Barry has to jump a river to stop her. But despite his best efforts she overdoses on V-9, speeds away accompanied by blue lightning, disintegrating into nothing before his shocked eyes.

When Barry returns to S.T.A.R. Labs, where Harry has just revived Jesse by giving her a blood transfusion from his own veins, Team Flash get the biggest shock of all. Their suspicions, aroused by the combination of V-9 and blue lightning, are confirmed when Cisco vibes on Jay's helmet: "Jay Garrick" is actually their arch enemy, Zoom. 

He's been playing them all along.

* * *

That evening Joe, who's been observing the interplay between Harry, Cisco, and now Jesse, invites Harry out for a quiet drink. After some hesitation, Harry accepts, and they go to a no-questions-asked bar Joe knows, where nobody bats an eyelid when he walks in with the spitting image of a notorious dead murderer.

Joe sets two glasses of whisky down on the secluded corner table they've chosen, sits opposite Harry. "So. Wanna talk about it?"

"Talk about what?"

Joe smiles knowingly at Harry. "Your problems? Cisco? Your daughter?"

Harry coughs. "Why, Joe. I didn't know you cared."

"Yes you did," laughs Joe, taking a sip of whisky.

Harry also drinks, feels a little light-headed, thinks maybe he shouldn't have given _quite_ so much of his blood to Jesse. Oh, what the fuck. He takes another drink, leans forward over the table, starts unburdening himself to Joe.

"... and now Jesse's threatening to leave town again," he finishes, "and first she says it's because of Cisco, then she says it's because she wants her independence. I don't know where I am with her. And Cisco -" He stops, takes another drink, looks surprised to find his glass empty.

"And Cisco?" prompts Joe.

"Don' know where I am with him either," Harry says, his voice slurring slightly. "He's been avoiding me."

"Well, maybe that's 'cause he thinks that to you, he's just one a your fucktoys."

"My -?" Harry splutters.

"You know, like those S.T.A.R. Labs interns of yours on Earth-2?"

That obnoxious knowing look is back on Joe's face; Harry longs to punch it off. Goddammit, has that daughter of his told _everybody_ about those fucking interns?

"It's not like that!" he protests. "I care about him. That's why my daughter's so upset."

"And have you told Cisco that?" presses Joe.

"I - uh - it's -" Harry rakes his fingers through his hair. "It's not easy - for me - to talk about my feelings."

Joe's unimpressed. "Well, you better talk about them to Cisco, and soon. Else you gonna lose him." He leans back in his chair, shakes his head at Harry. "Is that what you want, man? Really?"


	21. Chapter 21

"You gonna be okay?" Joe shoots a sideways glance at Harry as he pulls up outside S.T.A.R. Labs. "I can take you on to Cisco's place if you want."

Harry is already getting out of Joe's car. "Thanks, but I need to talk to my daughter first."

Joe's relieved to hear Harry sounding a lot more sober than when they left the bar. "Okay, then," he says, and drives off. He still can't really believe that he's encouraging this Harry/Cisco thing; it's just Cisco seems so unhappy without the guy. "Hope I've done the right thing talking to him like that," he mutters to himself. "Hell, hope _he_ does the right thing. Whatever that is."

Harry goes up to the room he's sharing with Jesse, but there's no sign of her. There is, however, a mobile phone lying on the table, its 'new message' light blinking. He frowns down at it. Surely that's the phone they gave Jesse when she arrived on this world? So is it a message _for_ her - or _from_ her? And where the fuck is she, anyway? Starting to feel uneasy, he picks up the phone. Telling himself that if it's something private she wouldn't leave it lying around, he takes a look at the message, to find it's for him after all: an audio file from his daughter.

"Hey, Dad. It's me. Listen, your job over the years has been to shield me from harm. But now it's my turn to go out into this new world on my own, no shield, and discover what this Earth can offer. You know, you are the best teacher I've ever had, but I don't know what more you can teach me."

There's a pause, as if she's wondering what to say. Then, hurriedly:

"I love you. Please, don't come looking for me."

The audio cuts off, leaving Harry staring at the phone in his hand. Suddenly, another drink seems like a _really_ good idea. He slams Jesse's phone down on the table and heads for the filing cabinet which houses his secret stash.

* * *

Cisco is less than impressed when a drunk Harry turns up on his doorstep, especially when he discovers that Harry drove there in a S.T.A.R. Labs van. He hurries outside; the van's skewed halfway across the road. Cisco parks it in a manner less likely to attract unwanted attention and goes back to his apartment. Harry's inside, slumped on the couch.

"You're damn lucky you didn't get a DUI citation. All the traffic cops must be on the other side of town." Cisco glares down at Harry. "Why are you even here?"

Harry squints up at him. "Joe. Said. Need. Talk. To you," he says, trying not to sound drunk and failing completely. "About. Feelings. 'N stuff." He raises his hands, lets them fall, helplessly. 

"Wait, what?" This comes as a total surprise to Cisco: _Joe's_ playing cupid, now? "You sure 'bout that? 'Cos only the other day he was complaining about you chicken-hawking me."

"Huh?"

"Don't you say that on Earth-2? It's when an older guy - a _much_ older guy -"

Harry interrupts him. "You think 'm too old f'you?" He looks hurt.

Cisco's heart begins to thump. That sounds almost as though Harry's actually _serious_ about him. But there's something he just has to know.

"Those interns of yours -"

"Fuckit! You're not - it's not like -" Harry waves his hands in an attempt to get his point across.

Cisco thinks - _hopes_ \- he understands. "Yeah, okay, okay. But tell me. Was - my doppelganger - one of them?"

Harry blinks owlishly at Cisco. "Don' remember. Why's it matter anyway?"

"That vibe I had. Right before we - well. There was you and this young guy making out in the infirmary. And if -"

Harry's shaking his head. "Infirm'ry? Okay, no. Never took 'em to infirm'ry."

Cisco frowns. "Where did you? Take them?"

"Oh - m'office. Elevator. S-stairwell, sometimes. Once onna roof -"

"Enough, already!" Cisco doesn't know how to react to this. "What, you were Mr Insatiable?"

Harry sniffs. "Never mind them. C'mere." He leers at Cisco, clumsily pats the couch beside him. "Le's have drunk s-sex."

" _I'm_ not drunk," Cisco declares. "And I'm gonna make _you_ some coffee. Sober you up."

But when he gets back from his kitchen carrying a Dr Who mug full of strong black coffee, Harry's sprawled bonelessly across the whole couch. 

Fast asleep.

* * *

It's that nightmare again. Cisco's been having it on and off ever since Dr Wells killed him. Okay, that timeline got reset. Okay, it's over a year since it didn't happen. But still, sometimes - especially when he's stressed - it comes back to haunt him.

Cisco's standing in the bunker, checking over his containment field. The one which was supposed to trap the Reverse Flash, the one which failed. He can't find anything wrong with it. Then he must have called up some hidden routine of Wells's by mistake, because the Reverse Flash is suddenly there in front of him: yellow suit, glowing red eyes, repeating the phrases he said back then.

"...my goals are beyond your understanding..."

"...Dr Wells - we meet at last..."

"A hologram!" breathes Cisco, finally understanding.

"...I'm not like the Flash at all.."

A new voice comes from behind Cisco. "...some would say - I'm the Reverse."

Cisco whirls round to see Dr Wells. On his feet, no glasses, no sign of a wheelchair. Wells walks slowly, menacingly, towards him; from that moment Cisco knows he's doomed. Wells tells him things - unbelievable things - how his name is really Eobard Thawne, he's from the future, he killed Barry's mom. How everything he's done is so he can get back home, back to his time. Cisco offers to help him, but knows it's useless even before Wells looks at him pityingly, shakes his head, says, "You're smart, Cisco. But you're not that smart." Now he's raising his hand - it's vibrating - Cisco knows he's gonna die -

And he's suddenly awake, sitting up in bed, drenched in sweat, heart racing, breath coming in ragged gasps. His throat is raw: please say he hasn't been screaming.

The light clicks on. Harry's standing at the foot of his bed, blinking down at him. "Cisco? What's wrong?"

Oh God. He's been screaming.


	22. Chapter 22

Harry stands at the foot of the bed, looking far too much like the fake Wells of his nightmares for Cisco's peace of mind. He even raises his hand; Cisco tenses, half expecting it to start vibrating. But Harry's hand doesn't stay at chest height. He pushes it through his hair, leaving it more rumpled than ever. His face cracks in a huge yawn, he knuckles his eyes, sits down on the bed with a heartfelt groan.

"Cisco?" His voice is little more than a croak, and now Cisco gets a closer look, the resemblance to the fastidious fake Wells fades: Harry's eyes are bloodshot, his jaw is covered in a thick growth of stubble, and he's accompanied, still, by the aroma of whisky fumes.

"I know what you need," declares Cisco, jumping out of bed and going into the bathroom. He comes back carrying a glass half full of pale green liquid. "Caitlin's patent hangover cure."

He sits down on the bed beside Harry, hands him the glass. "Why'd you get drunk, anyway?"

Harry empties the glass, grimaces, sets it down on the nightstand. "Joe took me to a bar, we had a coupla drinks. Then when I got back to S.T.A.R. Labs -" He shrugs. "I got a message from Jesse. She's left town."

Cisco's eyes widen. "Because of me?" 

"Nah." Harry fumbles in his pocket, produces a phone, replays Jesse's message. When it's finished, he and Cisco stare at each other for a long moment.

"She'll be okay. The breaches are all closed now, Zoom can't get at her," Harry says, sounding a bit uncertain. Then he shakes his head, sighs. "Guess she had to grow up sometime." He scoots closer to Cisco, puts his arm around him. "So - why the scream?"

"Nightmare," Cisco tells him tersely.

Harry grunts a laugh. "Yeah, I gathered that. Wanna tell me about it?"

"It was that reset timeline again. The one where fake Wells killed me."

Harry gives an inarticulate growl, rolls Cisco over onto his side, spoons up behind him. Cisco can feel a lot of fumbling going on, in the course of which his sleep shorts are tugged down. Then Harry's half-hard cock is tucked into the cleft of Cisco's buttocks and Harry's hands reach around to clasp him protectively. Cisco relaxes against him with a sigh. He doesn't mean to fall asleep, but suddenly he's swimming down into cool, watery, sunlit depths.

* * *

Cisco half wakes from a confused dream about dolphins, realises that Harry's humping him from behind, cock sliding rhythmically in the cleft between Cisco's butt cheeks. Cisco opens his eyes; the dolphins vanish. "Harry?"

Harry holds him tighter, humps harder. Cisco isn't sure if he's even awake. Then he shouts out, loudly, and suddenly Cisco's buttocks and balls are dripping with Harry's warm wet semen.

"Sorry," Harry mutters into Cisco's hair, sounding embarrassed. He blows gently into his ear. "Guess I shot my load too soon."

"Don't worry 'bout it," Cisco mumbles. He wriggles a bit, pushes back against Harry.

Harry reaches around to palm Cisco's half-hard cock, rasps his bristly jaw across Cisco's bare shoulder, whispers hoarsely, "Next time I'm gonna come _in_ side your ass, Crisco."

Cisco's so turned on by this he immediately hardens in Harry's hands.

"Yeah," Harry growls, his breath hot against the back of Cisco's neck. "Now you, baby." And he begins to vigorously pump Cisco's cock.

Because Harry is reaching around from behind him the angle and the action are almost the same as when Cisco is jerking himself off, and yet it's so different, so amazing, so _hot_. Cisco willingly gives himself up to the rhythm of his Earth-2 lover, and soon he's swept away on a rising tide of sensation which climaxes with him plunging over the edge, cock jerking uncontrollably in Harry's hands, gasping Harry's name again and again as he comes.

"That hit the spot, huh?" smirks Harry, groping around for something to wipe the jizz off his hands, finding a pair of boxers discarded at the end of the bed.

But Cisco doesn't answer; he's swimming with dolphins again.

* * *

The next morning they share Cisco's shower, Cisco's razor, even Cisco's toothbrush. Then Harry goes back into the bedroom to get dressed, leaving Cisco combing his hair in front of the bathroom mirror.

"Shit!"

Startled by Harry's exclamation, Cisco leans around the bedroom door. "Whassup?"

Harry's sitting, stark bollock naked, on the end of the bed, ruefully holding his boxers out at arm's length. "Guess I'm not wearing these today."

Cisco takes them from him, sniffs, grimaces. They're stiff and smelly with dried spunk. "Guess not," he agrees, dropping them into his laundry hamper.

"I cleaned us up on them last night. Thought they were yours."

"Gee, thanks, Harry!"

Harry grins at him. "What? You got plenty more."

"Wanna borrow a pair?"

Harry shakes his head, pulls on his trousers. "Nope. I'll just go commando till we get to the lab then slip upstairs, get changed."

But when they arrive at S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry immediately begins bending Harry's ear with some crazy scheme about running back in time to ask fake Wells to teach him to get faster, and everything flies out of Harry's head except the need to convince him that this is a really, REALLY bad idea.

Barry won't even listen to his arguments. "I don't care," he interrupts, jaw obstinately set. "I _must_ get faster. Look, suppose one day I face another threat like Zoom? Or - " he starts to pace restlessly, "- what if Zoom himself, I don't know, finds a way to reopen the breaches himself? What then? I hafta do this, Harry."

Harry tugs at his hair in frustration. "I'm not saying you shouldn't try to get faster, Allen. I'm just saying, going back in time is not the way to do it. Think of all the things you could screw up, messing with the timeline."

"Tell me one other way, and I'll do it!" exclaims Barry. "But nothing I've tried, nothing I've read, is any use at all."

"Tachyons," says Cisco suddenly. The others all turn and stare at him.

"Tachyons," he repeats. "Fake Wells stole tachyon tech from Mercury labs. I think we should go talk to Dr McGee."


	23. Chapter 23

"What can I do for you gentlemen?" asks Tina McGee, leading Barry and Cisco towards her office. "Could you bring us coffee, please, Janet?" she adds to her secretary as they pass her desk.

"Uh, there's one more of us," Barry tells her. "He's parking the van, he'll be along shortly."

They'd agreed beforehand it would be better not to spring Harry Wells on Dr McGee straight away, give them a chance to do a bit of explaining first. But Harry, impatient as ever, is walking through her office door before Barry's been able to do more than bring up the topic of parallel universes. She jumps up from behind her desk, eyes narrowed. 

" _You!_ "

"Um, no, it isn't," Barry says apologetically. "That's what I was gonna tell you, before - Harry - uh, went off half-cocked. He does that. And he isn't the Harrison Wells you knew. Or the guy who stole his body, either."

Harry's scowling at him, wondering if Barry used the phrase _went off half-cocked_ deliberately. He shoots a suspicious glare at Cisco. "You been bitching about last night?"

"No! Private stuff's private, man." Cisco looks hurt.

Dr McGee's utterly bewildered. "Would one of you care to tell me what the hell is going on?"

Ignoring the byplay between Harry and Cisco - because he _really_ doesn't want to know what they're talking about - Barry explains about Earth-2 doppelgangers. He's just finished when Dr McGee's secretary brings in their coffee. After she's gone, Barry leans forward. "The real reason we're here," he says in a low voice, "is your tachyon research."

"Tachyons?" Tina McGee muses. "Everybody seems interested in tachyons. Like that horrible man you rescued me from earlier this year, Mr Allen."

It takes a moment for Barry to process the implications of this, then his eyes widen and he chokes on his coffee. "Wait, what? You know I'm -"

"The Flash? Oh yes." Tina McGee laughs at the expression on his face. 

"But how -?"

"Come on, Barry, I'm a scientist. We're paid to be perceptive." She looks thoughtful. "When that man kidnapped me, he said an interesting thing. I'd told him that a man in a yellow suit tried to steal another tachyon prototype last year, and he said -" She frowns, trying to remember Thawne's exact words. "He said: _I must have gotten stuck here once before and not been able to access enough of the Speed Force_."

* * *

They walk through the facility to the secure labs where the tachyon research takes place, Dr McGee and Barry leading, Cisco and Harry just behind them. Cisco shoots a surreptitious sideways glance at Harry. It's hard to know what the guy's thinking. Is he still hungover? Regretting last night? Wishing he hadn't paid Cisco that drunken visit? And why would he suspect Cisco of bitching to Barry about his premature ejaculation - surely he should know Cisco would never do something like that?

The memory of last night is making Cisco uncomfortably horny, his cock straining his tight jeans. And the knowledge that Harry, beside him, is going commando, is not helping one bit. To distract himself he speeds up a little and tunes in on Barry's conversation with Dr McGee.

"We all miss Caitlin Snow here at Mercury Labs," she's saying. "How is she?"

"Kinda down at the moment," Barry admits. "Jay Garrick - the Earth-2 guy we all trusted - was playing us all along. Turns out he's really Zoom."

"Oh, my God!" gasps Dr McGee.

"Yeah. It's hit us all hard, but especially Caitlin. She had feelings for him, you know?"

Feelings. Cisco's suddenly thinking about Harry again. What are Harry's feelings for him? Come to that, what are his feelings for Harry? This time last year he'd never even have thought of going to bed with a man; now he thinks of little else. As long as that man is Harry.

You couldn't call last night _romantic_ , but somehow it's cemented his feelings for the guy; he's in danger of becoming really serious about him. But how serious is Harry? If they succeed in re-opening a breach as Barry wants, and defeat Zoom, will Harry want to go home, to Earth-2?

This thought's so painful Cisco immediately flinches away from it, tries to concentrate on what Barry and Dr McGee are saying - something about Eliza Harmon's transformation into Trajectory - but then his spine tingles, his focus falters, and he glances back over his shoulder, just in time to catch Harry checking out his ass.

* * *

When Cisco speeds up to get ahead of him Harry almost catches him up, then decides to fall back and admire the view. The jeans Cisco's wearing are tighter than his usual ones; they show off his tempting, well-rounded ass to perfection. Just watching him sashaying along in front of him is giving Harry a hard-on. He rasps his hand over his jaw, wishes Cisco had a better razor. And then he, too, is thinking about last night. He's not had feelings of such intensity for anyone as he has for Cisco, not for a long time. Not since his wife died.

And not so long ago, he'd been afraid Cisco would die, too. Tina McGee's mention of Eobard Thawne's quest for tachyon tech has brought back that traumatic time, the time he's done his best to forget, when Cisco lay in the infirmary, blood all over his face, fading in and out of existence. The desperation he'd felt. How he'd pleaded with Barry to help Thawne get back to the future, fix the fractured timeline, so Cisco would survive.

Harry's train of thought breaks off; they've arrived at the secure area where all the tachyon research takes place, and Dr McGee is entering a keycode to let them all inside.

"Here," she says, leading them to a row of locked cabinets. "A more advanced version of the prototype I lent to S.T.A.R. Labs." She pauses partway though unlocking the largest one. "I don't think I ever got that back, did I?"

"No, sorry. Dr Wells - the Reverse Flash - um, it was stolen." Barry looks embarrassed.

"I'm surprised you didn't just break in here and steal what you wanted," Dr McGee says tartly, lifting a metallic object from the cabinet. "You folks at S.T.A.R. Labs seem to treat Mercury Labs as your own private resource." She's looking accusingly at Harry as she says this.

"Steal it?" says Harry, with a guilty memory of how he came by his beloved laser gun. "A few months ago, sure. Now? No."

Tina McGee smiles, holds out the tachyon prototype. "I owe Mr Allen my life. Take it."

Harry's already reaching for the device, itching to examine it, when Barry says something which pulls him up short.

"Thank you so much, Dr McGee. With this I can go faster, fast enough to go after Zoom. And Cisco here's gonna help. He's gonna reopen one of the breaches to Earth-2."


	24. Chapter 24

"What in hell are you and Allen thinking?" Harry glares at Cisco across the dismantled tachyon prototype they're working on. "Re-opening the breaches is OUT."

Cisco looks down at the screwdriver in his hand. He doesn't want to see Harry's angry face, know he's angry with _him_. "I don't even know it's possible, right? Barry saw what Reverb can do, and he thinks I can do the same, even re-open a breach. Me, I'm not so sure." Finally he looks up, wishes he hadn't. The expression on Harry's face isn't anger anymore. It's hurt.

"And you weren't gonna talk to me about it?"

"I -" Cisco puts down his screwdriver, tucks his hair back behind his ear. "Harry. You're okay with tweaking this -" he gestures at the components of tachyon prototype laid out on the bench in front of them, "- to help Barry get more speed. So why _not_ re-open a breach, take the fight to Zoom? If we can."

"I - am - fine -" Harry punctuates his words with stabs of his finger at Cisco's chest, stops when he sees him wince, grimaces briefly in sympathy. "Sorry." He shakes his head in exasperation. "I am fine with helping Allen get faster. I am _not_ fine with giving the man who kidnapped and tortured my daughter the chance to DO IT AGAIN."

"Hey, we're not gonna let that happen." 

Cisco and Harry turn round; they've been so intent on each other they haven't noticed Barry come into the lab.

Harry's reply is heavily laced with sarcasm. "Oh, you're not gonna let that happen, Allen? Good to know. Wish I'd known it the first time. Oh, wait. It _did_ happen."

Barry fidgets. "Okay, okay. I get it. It took us far too long to rescue your daughter. But once I get more speed -" he points at the device on the bench, "I _will_ take Zoom down. We can't just turn our backs on another Earth - _your_ Earth."

"Right now there _is_ no way to my Earth, Allen. Let's keep it that way."

Barry's chin jerks up defiantly. "We're getting back to Earth-2, Wells. With or without your help."

Harry's hand shoots out; Cisco's only just in time to stop him sweeping everything off the bench.

"Okay." Harry's reining in his frustration with an obvious effort. "Just promise me one thing, Allen. Don't try re-opening any breaches until I've found my daughter, brought her back to S.T.A.R. Labs. I need to be sure she's safe."

* * *

Harry drives the S.T.A.R. Labs van along the road to Opal City. In the end it wasn't too difficult to trace his daughter: vibrating at their Earth's frequency, she leaves cellular dead zones wherever she goes on this Earth, making it relatively simple to get a fix on her location.

He's still fuming about Barry Allen's naive overconfidence, and Cisco's seeming willingness to go along with this dangerous scheme to re-open a breach. So he's not in the best of moods when he finally pulls into a parking bay adjacent to the apartment block where he hopes to find Jesse.

The girl who opens the door looks to be about Jesse's age, maybe a few years older. She eyes the gun Harry is doing an imperfect job of hiding behind his back. "Laser tag's in 2D."

"What? Oh, no." Harry pushes the laser gun further out of sight. "Uh, I'm looking for Jesse."

She steps back from the door, giving him space to enter. "Come on in."

"Thanks." Harry looks around the room as Jesse's roommate goes to fetch her.

His daughter is not pleased to see him. "How'd you find me?" she challenges.

"Uh - cellular dead zones? Jesse, you need to come back with me."

"Wait," says Jesse's roommate, looking between them. "So you're a runaway? So you're her dad? Great." She shrugs, leaves the room, calling back over her shoulder, "Let me know if I need to find a new roommate."

Harry turns to his daughter. "Jesse -"

"Dad, no. I'm not coming back with you. I've my own life to lead now. And you - you've got Cisco."

"So that's why you won't come back to S.T.A.R. Labs? Grow up, Jesse. Surely you -"

"Look," interrupts his daughter. "I get you need to move on, Dad. You can't mourn my mom forever. Just - don't expect me to dance at your wedding, okay?"

"Huh?"

"Two men can get married on this Earth, Dad."

"They can?" Harry's silent for a moment, processing this. Then he shakes his head, scrubs his hand over his face. "Never mind. Thing is, Jesse, Allen is hellbent on re-opening a breach. And if Zoom has access to this world again, that puts you - puts all of us - in grave danger..." He continues in this vein for some time, but Jesse's unmoved by all his arguments.

" _No_ , Dad. Please, just go."

And in the end, that's what he does.

* * * 

"Barry, I'm not sure about this." Cisco looks imploringly at his friend, willing him to understand.

Barry's impatient. "What's not to be sure about? We hafta re-open a breach, Cisco, if I'm gonna go after Zoom." He frowns. "You do _want_ me to take him down, right?"

"Yeah, sure, of course I do. But -"

"No buts, bro. Put your vibing goggles on and give it a whirl."

Reluctantly, Cisco does as Barry asks. But the breach he's trying to re-open - in S.T.A.R. Labs basement - stays resolutely closed. 

"Nada," announces Cisco, removing his goggles with secret relief.

Barry isn't giving up that easily. "We should check out the sites of other breaches. Look for the one with the highest level of residual trans-dimensional energy; that should be the easiest one to re-open. Is that possible?"

"To check for trans-d energy? Sure. I can build something to do that, no problem," says Cisco, thinking that that should hold Barry off for a while, at least till Harry gets back.

But they've no sooner returned to the cortex than an alarm beeps at Cisco's workstation.

"What's that?" Barry asks.

"Harry!" exclaims Cisco, his fingers moving rapidly over the keys.

"What about Harry?"

"My black-box camera in the lab van recorded an accident," says Cisco, beginning to replay the footage. "Uh oh. That does not look like an accident. That's an attack!"

The grainy, flickering images show the van shuddering to a halt under a sudden impact from the front. Then a hand appears, ripping away the driver's door, giving a limited view of the street outside. Cisco stares in horror as a stranger tosses the door away like it weighs nothing, yanks Harry from the van, and drags his unconscious body away, out of sight.

The screen fades to black.


	25. Chapter 25

Cisco stares pleadingly at Barry over the blank screen. "We hafta help him. We hafta rescue Harry from that -"

"Meta?" suggests Barry.

"Must be. The way he just tore off the van door..." Cisco's fingers rapidly rattle his keyboard. "Problem. No traffic cams in the area. We just don't know where the guy took him."

"I'll work the scene, see if I can find any clues." Barry's already suiting up. He pauses as a thought strikes. "Was Jesse in the van with him?"

"Don't think so - wait, I'll check." This time Cisco replays the van cam's footage frame by frame, scrutinising it carefully. When he's finished, he shakes his head. "Nope. And he was heading back towards S.T.A.R. Labs when it happened, so I guess she refused to come with him."

"What was the last place the van stopped?" asks Barry.

Cisco checks his screen. "Woodmen and Shore for about 15 minutes before heading back to Central City. Why?"

"That's where Jesse must be," Barry says, settling his hood over his face. "I'll go there, too. She should know something's happened to her dad."

He picks up his forensics case and is gone in a red blur. Cisco shakes his head. He's not so keen on seeing Jesse again, knowing how she opposes his relationship with her father. But if she can help them recover Harry then it will be worth it. His own feelings don't matter, so long as Harry is safe.

“Oh, Harry,” he whispers. “Please God you're okay, that we find you in time.” What can this unknown meta want with him? Who is he? _Where_ is he?

Cisco begins methodically scanning through the van cam footage again, trying to find the best picture he can of Harry's assailant. If they can find out who the guy is, it will be a start.

* * *

Harry comes back to consciousness to the frenzied beeping of his meta alarm, looks around blearily; he seems to be in some kind of storage warehouse for a carnival. Then he realises he's chained up.

A voice comes from across the warehouse. "Dr - Harrison - Wells."

Harry lifts his handcuffed hands, lets them drop to his lap, frowns at the guy who must have imprisoned him here, who appears from around a bank of funfair lights, walks slowly towards him across the warehouse floor.

"Yup. I'm Harrison Wells. And who are you?"

"Name's Griffin Grey."

"Griffin Grey? Do I know you?" 

The guy's standing over him now, looking down at Harry with anger in his eyes. "Nope. But you should. I'm one of your mistakes. One of your sins coming home to roost."

Harry realises what must've happened. "All right, you think I -" _Damn_ Earth-1 Wells - Thawne - whoever he was. "I'm from - I'm not -" How can he explain to this guy? "I'm not who you think I am." It sounds lame, even to himself.

"I know exactly who you are. And you're gonna fix what your particle accelerator did to me."

"What did the accelerator do to you?" 

Grey picks up a giant metal disc, casually twists it into a pretzel with his bare hands, throws it aside to clang heavily onto the concrete floor.

"That."

Harry raises his eyebrows. "Well, that's impressive. And all things considered, I don't know that having that kind of strength is the worst thing you could have been given."

Grey puts his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, that's what I thought at first. And it was a lot of fun. Till I learned it did something else to me, too." He pulls a photograph out of his pocket, shows it to Harry. "That's me."

Harry looks from the picture of a teenager to apparently middle-aged Grey, dawning realisation in his eyes.

"Last year," Grey adds bitterly.

"You're - you're ageing."

"If this keeps happening, I'll be dead in a few months."

"How old are you, Griffin?"

Griffin Grey looks down, swallows painfully. "I'm 18."

Harry shakes his head, sighs. "Look. I'm sorry this is happening to you. But there's nothing I can do to fix it."

Grey glares at him murderously. "Well, that sucks. 'Cause if you can't figure out a way to help me, Dr.Wells, you're gonna die soon, too. I'll make sure of that."

* * *

Barry arrives back at S.T.A.R. Labs in the damaged van, bringing with him a bloodstained fingerprint lifted from its hood, and Jesse Wells. Cisco and Jesse eye each other warily. Ignoring them, Barry begins running the fingerprint through the database; it's not long before he gets a hit.

"This is the guy?" he says doubtfully, calling up the associated mugshot. "Griffin Grey? A senior at Central City High School?"

Cisco leans over to look at the screen. "No way. An 18 year old didn't kidnap Harry." Then he frowns, looks again. "Although..." he says slowly, working Barry's keyboard with flying fingers, "... how about that?"

He's superimposed a still from the van crash footage over the photograph of the fresh-faced teen. There are definite points of resemblance.

"Aaaaand," Cisco goes on, "if I run his high school pic through an ageing routine..." He taps his finger on the screen triumphantly. "See?"

"Whoa!" exclaims Barry. "It's the same guy."

Jesse's more cautious. "It sure _looks_ like the same guy."

"So -" Barry's busy searching through another database. "Hmm. No current address. Apparently Griffin Grey disappeared about six months ago."

"How we gonna find him?" Cisco sounds distraught. "How we gonna find _Harry_?"

Jesse shoots him a quick look, but her voice is unexpectedly gentle as she says, "My dad means a lot to you, huh, Cisco?"

Cisco isn't going to lie. "He means everything," he says simply.

Jesse's frowning in thought. "Wait a second, was he wearing his watch when he left to get me?" 

"Already tried that," Cisco says despondently. "GPS isn't working."

"Okay, no, but the meta-human activity would be. I mean, the watch is designed to track metas, right? And since Griffin Grey is one, it'll keep sending a message to a server till it goes through. But since we're on a different Earth, it'll never go through. So it just keeps sending the same signal."

Cisco's face lights up. "Jesse, you're a genius!" He quickly configures a new search, nods in satisfaction at the result. "Gotcher! Central City Amusement Park." He jumps to his feet. "What are we waiting for, guys? Let's go rescue him!"


	26. Chapter 26

"How do you sleep at night?" Griffin Grey paces up and down in front of Harry, stopping every so often to shoot him an accusing glare. "How _can_ you sleep? Knowing you've destroyed so many people's lives?"

Harry grimaces. He may not have been the one to cause Griffin's problems, but he's only too aware of what his actions on his own Earth have spawned. Metas like Deathstorm, like Killer Frost. Like _Zoom_. "It's - difficult," he admits.

"Do you have anyone in your life that you care about?" asks Griffin. 

"I have a daughter." And what will happen to her if Barry Allen carries out his mad scheme of re-opening a breach, giving Zoom free access to this world? And will Cisco help him? Cisco. Someone else he cares about. More, perhaps, than he's willing to admit...

Griffin interrupts Harry's thoughts. "I used to have someone in my life that I cared about," he declares, his voice full of self-pity. "My girlfriend, Jenny. We were gonna get married, have kids someday. But after I got hit by that wave from the particle accelerator, all my dreams ended. You know, I see her sometimes, walking down the street." He smacks his fist into his open palm, his face screwed up, trying not to cry. Harry has to remind himself that Griffin is only a teen.

"She doesn't even recognize me. But why would she? I look as old as her dad." Griffin glares at Harry with hate and pain. "You robbed me of her."

Harry can't stand it anymore. "Shut up, Grey!" he growls.

But Griffin's on a roll. "Wake up, man. This city is screwed up because of you. It was quiet and normal. Until you rode in on your high horse, talking about science and changing the future. You didn't stop to think about what your particle accelerator could do to others. You only thought about what it could do for you."

He stabs his forefingers accusingly at Harry.

"I hope it was worth it. Doc."

* * *

Barry and Cisco arrive at Central City Amusement Park, Cisco anxiously scanning his mobile tracking app, homing in on the meta alert signal from Harry's watch. He points to a large building off to one side of the park.

"Looks like it's coming from that warehouse over there."

"Okay," Barry says, "you wait here. I'll go take a look."

"No way!" protests Cisco, hefting Harry's laser gun, recovered from the damaged S.T.A.R. Labs van. "I'm coming in with you."

There's a buzz from Cisco's phone: Jesse, trying to attract his attention. The only way they could persuade her to stay behind at S.T.A.R. Labs was to agree to keep a line open so she could hear what's happening; seems she's put the time to good use.

"I've been analysing Griffin Grey's blood from the fingerprint Barry found on the van," her voice comes from the phone's speaker. "And the functional myostatin in his cells is essentially gone. I mean, giving him super strength."

"Okay," snaps Barry, eager for action, "we'll be careful."

"Guys, that's not all," Jesse goes on. "He's also suffering from oxidated stress, the proteins in his DNA are being ravaged by antioxidants. That means the more he exerts himself, the faster he ages. It's why he looks middle-aged now, even though he's still only eighteen."

"So if we can get him to exert even more energy," Barry says, "he'll get old and weak. Easier to take down."

"Yeah. Or, we could, you know, try to cure him."

Barry does a double take. "Are you serious? The guy kidnapped your dad!"

"Yeah, but why? I'm guessing he mistook dad for the Harrison Wells from your world. Maybe he thinks he can fix him."

"Or maybe he just wants revenge."

"Only one way to find out," puts in Cisco. "We go in there and ask him."

* * *

When Griffin Grey sees The Flash and another guy walk into the warehouse he reacts immediately; he seizes a huge oil drum and raises it over his head, ready to hurl it at the intruders.

Cisco slowly lowers the laser gun, places it carefully on the ground; steps forward, hands raised in surrender. "Woah, wait. We know what your problem is, Griffin, and we've got someone working on it back at the lab."

As Grey hesitates, they hear a voice coming from Cisco's phone speaker.

"Guys! We think we may be onto something. Caitlin's here now and she's come up with an idea to reverse the oxidated stress in Griffin's DNA."

"Jesse!" Harry's eyes are shining. "You're back at S.T.A.R. Labs?"

"Yeah, Dad. Someone has to save your ass."

Cisco's and Harry's eyes meet. "Cocky little so-and-so, isn't she?" says Harry. But his voice is full of pride.

"That your daughter, doc?" asks Griffin.

"Yeah. That's my Jesse. And she's a genius. With her and Dr Snow on your case, you don't have to worry. They'll figure it out." He rattles the chains fixed to his handcuffs. "So how about setting me free, huh?"

Grey shakes his head. "Nope. I ain't that trusting. You stay right there till your genius daughter delivers."

Harry grunts. "Huh. Guess it's stalemate."

And it's a stalemate which isn't resolved until Jesse and Caitlin arrive a couple of hours later, bringing a bottle filled with a pale blue liquid. Griffin, still suspicious, refuses to take any until Harry drinks from the bottle first, but when he does the results are immediate. Griffin's face changes before their eyes and soon a teenager is standing in front of them. He holds out his hands, looks at them in wonder. Then he walks over to a funfair mirror; distorted though his reflection is, he can see that he is his young self once more.

With a whoop of joy he tosses the handcuff key to Jesse and runs out of the warehouse, shouting "I'm gonna find my girlfriend Jenny!"

Jesse frees Harry and watches Griffin as he all but turns somersaults on his way out the door. "I hope they get their happy ever after."

Cisco nods. "Yeah."

Caitlin says nothing, but her eyes are sad.

Barry dusts his hands together, blows out a breath. "O-kay. That's done. Now -" He turns to the others, determination in every line of his face.

"Now, we take down Zoom."


	27. Chapter 27

"Nope. Nada. Nothing." Cisco packs up his residual trans-d energy detector, crosses another breach off the list.

He's secretly rather relieved, agreeing with Harry that this could all go horribly wrong. Harry isn't as opposed to Barry's scheme as he was, not now that Jesse is back at S.T.A.R. Labs, but he still couldn't be called happy about it. Lately, he's been threatening to build her an inescapable daughter cube. They _think_ he's only joking...

"How many to go?" Barry's voice breaks in on Cisco's thoughts. He sounds impatient.

"Uh -" Cisco consults his list. "That was #10. So, 42 still to go."

They draw another blank at the next breach. And the next. 

But at #13 -

 _Beep! Beep! Beep!_ Cisco's detector is going crazy.

"It would be here," he mutters, looking around, rolling his eyes. "Spooky abandoned kids' hospital."

Barry's delighted. "Yay! Okay, Cisco. Do your thing. Hey, what -?"

Cisco's hauling out his phone. "I'm calling for backup," he says, looking mutinous.

A few minutes later a battered S.T.A.R. Labs van pulls up and Harry gets out. He walks over to them, laser gun in one hand, goggles in the other. He tosses the goggles to Cisco.

"Here. If you're serious about re-opening a breach, these will give you your best shot."

Cisco catches the goggles, examines them doubtfully. "Are these the ones I jacked off Reverb on Earth-2?"

"Yeah. I've modded them to work on this Earth."

"And you don't need to, uh, tune them to me? Like you did with the others?" In spite of himself, Cisco blushes, remembering Harry's finger in his asshole. Remembering how it felt.

Harry grins. "Well – now you mention it. Maybe we should, uh, double check."

Barry looks between them. "Guys?"

Cisco coughs, puts on the goggles. "Never mind."

The goggles light up, Cisco stretches out his hand, his face screwed up in concentration. There's a low humming sound, and the air around his hand becomes wavy and distorted.

Barry gasps. "It's working! It's working! Keep it coming, Cisco."

They can all feel the powerful energy crackling through them as the breach slowly begins to widen. Then, suddenly, it snaps shut; Cisco turns away, tearing off the goggles.

"Hey, what happened?" demands Barry. "You were doing it."

Cisco's violently shaking his head. "No, no, no, no. I - I can't do this."

"What?"

"Don't. Just, please, don't ask me to do this, man. Please?"

* * *

Barry gets back to S.T.A.R. Labs after visiting Joe for some advice and finds Harry busy working on a small piece of kit.

"What's this?"

Harry glances up. "It's your tachyon absorption enhancer upgrade. To give you more speed." He returns to his task. "Almost done."

"That's amazing! Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Barry hesitates a moment. "Uh, has Cisco come back yet? Have you seen him?"

Harry gives him a narrow-eyed look. "Try his workshop. And, Barry -"

"Yeah?"

"You better not give him a hard time about this breach opening thing."

Ignoring this, Barry charges into Cisco's workshop, calling out, "Cisco? Hey, Cisco!"

Cisco's tinkering with Reverb's goggles, doesn't look at all pleased to see Barry. "Yeah?"

Barry puts a consoling hand on Cisco's shoulder. "Look, um, I know what it's like - Zoom, getting in your head - how scary that can be."

Cisco shrugs him off. "It's not Zoom. It's me."

"What do you mean it's you?"

"It's like right now I'm Anakin Skywalker. I got the midi-chlorians. I've got the goods. The force is strong with me. That is something I can _feel_." Cisco clutches his chest. "But if I start opening breaches into other worlds, doing all this other crazy stuff Reverb was doing, then what if this is how I become Vader?"

Barry laughs. "Dude, you're never going to become Vader."

"You don't know that. That is what happened to Reverb. He learned how to use his abilities, and when he felt that -" Cisco clutches his chest again, "- when he felt that power, he succumbed to the dark side."

Barry raises his eyebrows. "Look, I get it. I really do. Every time I've learned a new ability, I've been terrified about what it might mean for me. What it could do to me, you know? But you were there with me when I learned how to run on water." He chuckles, shrugs. "Or when I ran up a building, or travelled through time." 

He leans forward, fixes Cisco with an earnest stare. "Just like I'm gonna be there every step of the way with you. You got something that Reverb never had, and that's Harry - and Caitlin - and Joe - and me. Friends who are gonna look out for you. And we're more than just friends; we're your family. So what do you say? Ready to put those things on again, and go another round?"

Cisco blows out a long breath, reaches for the goggles. 

"Let's do it."

* * *

Cisco stands once more in the deserted ward of the old children's hospital, Barry and Harry close behind him. Barry's in his Flash suit, the new tachyon enhancer tucked securely away behind his chest emblem; Harry's toting his beloved laser gun. They're ready for action.

What none of them realise is that Zoom's lurking on the other side of the breach, waiting for Cisco to re-open it.

Somehow, he'd sensed Cisco's first attempt, zipped over to Earth-2's equivalent of the deserted hospital, waited for the breach to grow big enough to leap through. When Cisco wimped out and let the breach close again, Zoom was furious. Ever since killing Reverb in a fit of temper he's regretted it; he _needs_ Reverb's powers. After experiencing other Earths, his own seems too small, stifling him. But as things stand, he's stuck here, unable to reach out for more worlds to conquer. His only hope now lies in Reverb's doppelganger. Cisco.

So he's back at the site of Cisco's aborted attempt, knowing that Cisco won't be able to resist for long, that Barry will persuade him to try again. And Zoom's ready. Waiting...

"Yeah! You're doing it! Keep it coming," encourages Barry.

Harrison looks sideways at him. He has a very bad feeling about this. Tense, he lifts his laser gun, makes sure it's charged.

The goggles are glowing, Cisco's hand is outstretched, the breach is beginning to form. Again they all feel its powerful energy rippling through them; a low humming fills their ears.

"Nearly there, dude! Nearly - _yes_!" Barry fist-pumps in delight as the breach opens all the way.

But then triumph swiftly turns to disaster: before they have chance to react Zoom is there, seizing Cisco and yanking him brutally back through the breach; Harrison and Barry hear his despairing scream fade into immeasurable distance.

The breach closes behind them. 

Cisco's gone.


	28. Chapter 28

Barry and Harrison stare in stunned disbelief as the breach shrinks to a tiny pulsating patch of energy, then to a point, then vanishes completely. With Cisco and Zoom on the other side. On Earth-2.

Harrison throws back his head, gives vent to an animal howl of rage and despair. Flinging his laser gun aside he turns on Barry, hands outstretched, grasping for the speedster's throat. Barry sees madness in Harrison's eyes, realises his danger just in time.

With a blur of scarlet, Barry's on the other side of the room.

With a roar, Harrison's after him, even snatching up his laser gun and sending sizzling bolts of energy criss-crossing the room. But Barry's much too fast; they don't even come close to intersecting the red zigzag of his passage through the deserted children's ward. At last, worn out, Harrison sinks onto an abandoned cot, buries his head in his hands. If he'd ever thought of his relationship with Cisco as a temporary thing, to be forgotten once Zoom's defeated and he and Jesse are back on Earth-2, he knows better now. It's taken this disaster to make him realise quite how much Cisco means to him, but is it too late? Will he ever see Cisco again?

Barry approaches him cautiously. "Harry?"

Harrison doesn't look up. His voice toneless, muffled by his hands, he says, "This is on you, Allen."

Barry doesn't try to deny it. "Man, I am so, so, sorry. But we will get Cisco back, I promise you."

Now Harrison does raise his head; Barry flinches at the look in his eyes. "You better hope you can keep that promise, Allen. Your hubris caused this catastrophe."

Barry ducks his chin. "Yeah. I'm sorry. I should've reacted faster."

Harrison takes a deep breath. "I will help you train. I will work day and night to figure out a way to reopen that breach. And when I do - you better be ready."

He gets up from the cot, claps a heavy hand on Barry's shoulder.

"Because if this goes wrong too, if Zoom harms Cisco in any way -" Harrison's voice sinks to a chilling hiss; he gets right up in Barry's face.

"I _will_ kill you."

* * *

Cisco looks around him and shudders. Zoom's brought him to a place which is only too familiar.

"His lair," Cicso mutters, glad that Zoom just dumped him and left, isn't here to laugh at him talking to himself.

There's the same masked guy, sitting on the floor of his cell, tapping monotonously on its carbine wall. There's the cell where Barry was imprisoned - but wait, it has a new occupant.

"Killer Frost!" exclaims Cisco.

She gives him a sultry look. "Well, he-llo. It's little Cisco."

The tapping from the guy in the iron mask increases in frequency; Killer Frost shoots him a venomous glare. 

"If I could get my powers to work through this carbine wall," she declares, "the first thing I would do is - Shut. Him. Up."

"Who is he?" asks Cisco. This question has been bugging him ever since he first saw the guy, back when they came here to rescue Barry from Zoom's clutches.

Killer Frost is dismissive. "Don't know, don't care. But if he's here, Zoom must need something from him." She smirks at Cisco. "Just like he needs something from you, sweetie."

"Oh?" says Cisco, uneasy. "What does he need from me?"

"Your powers, of course. Zoom made a mistake when he killed Reverb." She gives a cruel laugh. "So he wants another one. You."

Cisco spreads his hand across his chest. "I'm not Reverb. I won't work for Zoom."

"You sure, sweetie?" Killer Frost is unimpressed. "Of course," she muses, tapping her chin with one long, blue-tinted fingernail, "he may not need you after all. He said once that so long as one breach remains open, he's able to make others. Some sciencey thing." She shrugs, pouts. " _I_ don't understand it."

"Just as well I closed that breach behind us, then," says Cisco, marvelling at the narrow escape. He'd closed the breach instinctively, wanting to protect Harry from Zoom's immediate wrath; now it seems, if Killer Frost is to be believed, he's done much more besides.

* * *

Harrison throws himself into the task of honing Barry's reflexes with an energy Barry privately thinks of as demonic. And if Barry picks up a few cuts and bruises in the process - well, it's not like he doesn't deserve them, and worse. In Harrison's eyes, at least.

Caitlin doesn't agree. "You're being far too hard on Barry," she tells Harrison. "He wants to rescue Cisco from Zoom - Jay - whatever his real name is - just as much as you do."

"I doubt that very much, Dr Snow," growls Harrison. Then something she said snags his attention. "His real name?"

"Well, his doppelganger on this Earth is called Hunter Zolomon -"

"Yeah," interrupts Harrison, frowning, "I remember you saying." And that the name rang a vague, ominous memory chime when she did. Now what the -

"Hunter Zolomon!" he exclaims suddenly, snapping his fingers.

Caitlin looks puzzled. "Yes, that's what I -"

Harrison talks over her. "I knew I'd heard that name before. How could I have forgotten!" He grasps his watch, feverishly taps buttons. "There was a podcast - I downloaded it at the time -"

A picture suddenly appears on all the wall screens, beamed from Harrison's watch: the front page of _Central City Picture News_ along with the mugshot of a wild-eyed prisoner, his long hair and bushy beard all but hiding his features.

"Notorious serial killer caught," Caitlin reads from the screen. She gasps. " _That's_ Jay?"

"No, that is Hunter," corrects Harrison. "My Earth's Hunter Zolomon."

At this point Barry comes in, sweaty from the treadmill, towelling his face. He's followed by Jesse with a stopwatch. Their attention is immediately caught by what's on the screens.

"Whoa, what's this?" asks Barry.

"Hunter Zolomon," repeats Harrison. "Known to us as Jay Garrick." He glances up at one of the screens to refresh his memory of Hunter's story. "When Hunter was 11, his father killed his mother right in front of him. Father sent to prison, Hunter grew up in the foster care system."

Jesse goes on, "Years later he was convicted on 23 counts of murder."

"Wow," mutters Barry. He's uncomfortably aware of the parallels between his own childhood and Hunter's. If it wasn't for Joe taking him in, who knows what he might have become?

Harrison continues, "After the trial, Hunter was sent to the Saint Perez Mental Asylum for the Criminally Insane, prescribed daily electroshock therapy to cure him of his urges, then he faded from public view."

"Until the night your particle accelerator exploded," says Caitlin.

"That's right. The dark matter crept into the mental asylum. I had thought piping the explosion underground would limit exposure." Harrison shakes his head, his expression bleak. "I was wrong. It created a monster." His voice breaks with uncontrollable emotion. "And _this_ is the guy who has Cisco."


	29. Chapter 29

"Look, I'm sorry Zoom has you in a cell," Cisco tells Killer Frost. "Guess he's punishing you for helping us escape, huh?"

She shrugs elaborately. "Who knows? But it doesn't matter now. I'm not gonna stick around much longer." She bats her eyelashes at Cisco. " _You'll_ get me outa here, won't you, sweetie?"

Cisco's eyes widen. "How? I mean, sure, Reverb could've just shot an energy burst outa his fingertips." He holds his arm straight out in front of him, fingers pointing at Killer Frost, in imitation of his doppelganger. "But I've never done that. I don't even have his goggles any more. Zoom took 'em from me when he brought me here."

He pauses, scratches his head, looks more closely at the cables snaking their way around the abandoned train depot. "Although... I wonder - are these live?"

Killer Frost watches with interest as Cisco drags one of the cables up to her cell. "So how is this gonna get me out of here?"

"The electrical current in these cables should heat up the carbine," explains Cisco, fixing one cable into position, and going back for another, "which in turn should speed up the electrons - and the faster they go -" 

"The weaker its molecular structure becomes!" interrupts Killer Frost.

"Exactly." Cisco looks impressed.

Killer Frost shrugs, says nonchalantly, "I studied every once in a while."

"Well, when it gets hot enough, it should make the carbine as fragile as glass. Then we can get you outa there."

The plan works; soon the cell wall is weak enough for Killer Frost to shatter it with a blast of ice. She steps out, fastidiously brushing carbine shards from her costume.

"What are we gonna do about this guy?" asks Cisco, pointing at the man in the iron mask. "Guess we should free him, too."

"The _hell_ you will!" The voice is evil, menacing. It's Zoom, and he's furious. Before either of them has time to react, he's pushed Cisco aside and hand-shanked Killer Frost. She sinks to the ground, dead.

"That would have been you, only I need you," he tells a stunned Cisco. Eyeing the shattered cell wall he adds, "Try that with him -" nodding at the man in the mask, huddled in a corner of his cell, "- and he dies, too."

* * *

"Where are you going, Dad?"

Harry finishes shrugging on his coat, jams a baseball cap on his head, glances at his daughter. "Out."

It's been a long, hard day at S.T.A.R. Labs and he seems to be getting precisely nowhere in his efforts to find some way of re-opening that breach. To rescue Cisco. To get him back before Zoom - what the hell _is_ that monster doing to Cisco right now?

Jesse's studying him with concern. "Are you okay?"

Biting off his words, Harry says, "Zoom. Has. Cisco." He pulls the bill of his cap lower to obscure his face, turns towards the door. "Of course I'm not - _okay_."

Jesse hurries out of the lab after her father, tries to hug him, but he grabs her by the elbows and moves her aside.

"I need time by myself, Jesse. Don't worry about me."

"Of course I worry about you, Dad! At least tell me where you're going, where we can find you, if - if Cisco gets back."

Harry's outside the building now, striding swiftly towards one of the S.T.A.R. Labs vans. "I'll know," he calls back over his shoulder. "I'm going to his apartment."

And with that he drives away, leaving his daughter standing alone outside the S.T.A.R. Labs building, staring after him.

Arrived at Cisco's apartment, Harry fumbles in his pocket for the spare key Cisco lent him last time he was there, the key he'd conveniently forgotten to return. Inside, everything reminds him so strongly of his lover it's like a blow to the heart. Swaying, breathing heavily, Harry grabs a door lintel for support; realises it's the doorway into Cisco's bedroom. He staggers inside, struggles out of his clothes and throws himself prone on the bed, his face buried in the pillow.

And there, lying on Cisco's bed, clutching Cisco's pillow, inhaling Cisco's scent, Harry finally falls asleep.

* * *

"For the hundredth time, Jay, _no_. I'm not gonna work for you. I'm not gonna open breaches so you can wreak havoc on my Earth."

Jay/Zoom has spent a good while trying to turn Cisco to the dark side; he's even shed his Zoom costume to appear more familiar to him. It hasn't worked. Trying to control his temper - he _does_ need Cisco, which is the only reason the annoying dick is still alive - he says, "I know you think I'm some kinda monster. But give it time: you'll change your mind."

He puts his Zoom costume back on, all but the mask. If Cisco's off limits - for now, at least - he'll have to find someone else to slaughter, to satisfy his murderous urges. "Gotta go. See you later, Cisco."

"Wanna give me back my goggles?" asks Cisco, without any real hope.

Jay/Zoom chuckles. "Nice try, but no. Not until I'm sure of you."

And with that he dons his mask and is gone in a flash of blue lightning.

Left to himself, Cisco stretches out his arm, screws up his face in concentration, tries to open a breach back to his world. He doesn't really expect it to work, and of course it doesn't. Then he reconsiders. He might not be able to open a breach without the help of his goggles, but he can vibe without them; he's done it plenty of times before. And right now, if he can't go back home, he knows what he wants instead. More than anything, he wants to vibe Harry.

Cisco curls up on the floor, closes his eyes, thinks of Harry. At first it seems this isn't going to work either. Then, suddenly, it does; without any warning at all, he's vibing.

In his vision he's standing in his own bedroom back on Earth-1. It's night, but somehow he can see in spite of the darkness; can see a naked man sprawled out on the bed, one hand clutching the pillow, the other wrapped around his erect cock.

It's Harry.


	30. Chapter 30

Cisco feasts his eyes on the sight of Harry stretched out naked on his, Cisco's, bed. Vibing, his senses are enhanced: Harry's body appears to glow with strange colours which swirl and ripple as he moves - stretching out a leg, turning restlessly sideways, flexing an impressive bicep. And his fingers, moving on his even more impressive cock... Cisco draws in a sharp breath, tugs down the zipper of his jeans, wraps his fingers around his own cock in imitation of Harry.

"Oh, man, wish I was there with you," he mutters. "But guess I'll hafta take the next best thing."

And he mirrors Harry's actions until he's _so close_ to coming, he can barely stand it. "Harry!" he wails. "Oh, _Harry!_ "

Now Harry's hand is speeding up, tugging desperately on his dick; his head's thrown back, he's gasping for air. 

" _Cisco!_ "

The sound of his name on Harry's lips tips Cisco over the edge and he comes, in long, almost painful spurts. And nearly comes again when he sees Harry's spunk, rainbow coloured and pulsing to his vibe-enhanced sight, arc up in slow motion to spatter against Harry's chest. 

"Harry!" he shouts again.

And it seems like Harry's actually heard him; he's sitting up, alert, head turning from side to side, staring wide-eyed into the dark.

"Cisco? Is that you?" His voice sounds echoey, blurred around the edges with harmonics.

"Yeah, Harry, it's me. I'm vibing you."

"Zoom? Has he hurt you?"

"No, I'm okay. He wants me to reopen the breach, but don't worry, I won't."

"No, you must. Cisco, listen. This is important. Barry's been training; we're ready for Zoom now. Open the breach in the children's hospital - uh - tomorrow afternoon, right? We'll be waiting, take him by surprise when he comes through."

"Okay." There's a lot more Cisco wants to say, but his vibe's already losing cohesion; the trippy colours around Harry's lean, toned body are fading, his voice is almost inaudible as he says, "And, Cisco? I lo-"

Cisco hears no more. The vibe is over; his vision of Harry has gone.

* * *

The next morning Harry's at S.T.A.R. Labs bright and early, eager to tell the team what he's arranged with Cisco.

"Last night -" he begins, then stops, looks around. "Where's Allen?"

Caitlin looks up from her screen. "He's gone to his dad's cabin."

" _What_?!!"

"Yes, he said he needed some advice." Caitlin grimaces apologetically. "Zoom snatching Cisco hit him hard, you know? He feels it was his fault."

"It _was_ his fault," rasps Harry, furious. "And now there's a chance to put things right, he's - what - off fishing with daddy?" He fumbles out his phone, stabs in Barry's number.

It goes straight to voicemail.

Harry looks ready to explode. Jesse gets up, goes over to him, gives him a hug. He shrugs her off.

"Why's it so urgent, Dad?"

"Cisco - he vibed me last night. We were able to talk."

Caitlin's eyes widen. "Is he okay?"

"Yeah. Well, he is _now_. But I told him to open the breach this afternoon and we'd be there, waiting. And now Barry fucking Allen's off at some cabin in the arse end of nowhere -" He tries Barry's phone again; still nothing.

"I guess they have poor coverage out there," says Caitlin. "Iris said it took her awhile to get hold of Henry that time Zoom broke Barry's back."

Harry's holding on to his temper by a thread. "Fine. I'll keep trying." Then a thought strikes him. "Ah - Dr Snow. Could you do something for me?"

"Sure." Caitlin smiles at him sympathetically. "What is it?"

"Knock up a batch of V9. Your improved version. That Jay - Hunter - took."

Jesse gasps. "Dad! That's way too dangerous - and, wait, you're not a speedster."

Harry gives her an odd look. "Did I say it was for me?"

"It is, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah, but -"

"Look, Dad," interrupts Jesse, "even if Barry's not back in time, there are still things we can do."

"Yes," puts in Caitlin. "We've got that anti-speedster shackle Cisco invented."

Jesse nods eagerly. "And maybe we can use Hunter's past against him. If we put up huge pictures of his parents, wouldn't that distract him?"

"Yeah, maybe." Harry's not really listening; he's frowning down at his phone.

Barry still isn't answering.

* * *

Barry has just finished bringing his father up to speed on what's been going on since they last met.

"And Caitlin's really bummed about Jay," he adds moodily. "We all are, of course, but she - she had special feelings for him."

Henry Allen scrubs his hand across his jaw. "Wow, Slugger. Jay, Zoom? I can hardly believe it."

Barry gives a short laugh. "I know, right? And turns out his name's not even Jay Garrick. He's an Earth-2 serial killer called Hunter Zolomon."

"Did you say _Garrick_?"

"Jay Garrick, yeah. Why?"

"My mom's maiden name was Garrick," says Henry. He shrugs. "But never mind that. Tell me why you're here, son. Is something bothering you?"

Barry raises his eyebrows, gives a rueful little laugh. "You know me too well, Dad."

"So what is it, Slugger?"

"It's. Um." Barry fidgets in his chair, rubs the back of his neck, leans forward over the table towards his father. "You know I told you that Zoom took Cisco?"

Henry Allen nods. 

"Wells - Harry Wells - thinks that's on me. And he's right." Barry holds up his hand to stop his father interrupting. "If I hadn't insisted - if I hadn't kept bugging Cisco about it - he would _never_ have reopened that breach. And when Zoom came through? He caught me by surprise; I totally froze. And - and so he was able to take Cisco. I didn't stop him." Barry props his elbows on the table, buries his head in his hands.

Henry leans forward, puts his hand on Barry's shoulder in silent sympathy.

When Barry looks up, his eyes are wet with tears. "Seems like I always lose people who're close to me."

"Well, maybe it's time we did something about that." Henry gets up from the table. "I've been thinking for a while now that I've spent enough time away from my son."

Barry blinks up at him. "You mean -?"

"Yeah. Figure it's about time I came back to Central City."

Barry jumps up, sending his chair flying, and gives his dad a big hug. "That would be awesome!" He pulls back, grinning widely. "When?"

Henry slaps him on the back. "No time like the present. I'll just tidy up around here a little, then I'm good to go." He raises an eyebrow at his son. "Hey, shouldn't you be getting back? I'll drive over later today, meet you at S.T.A.R. Labs."

Barry hesitates, torn. He knows he should return to Central City as soon as possible, but he really wants to be with his dad right now. "Maybe I'll stick around, travel with you in your car."

*

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, an increasingly frantic Harry is obsessively hitting _redial_ on his phone.... 


	31. Chapter 31

The clock's ticking...

These words pound again and again in Harry's head as he chivvies Caitlin and Jesse through their tasks: Caitlin prepping V9, Jesse searching through the podcast for suitable photos of Hunter Zolomon's parents. In the end Jesse gets so annoyed with him she tells him to butt out.

"Look, I get that you're worried about Cisco, Dad," she tells him. "And sure, Barry being outa town isn't helping. But you hafta get off my case."

"It's not just Cisco I'm worried about, Jesse. If Zoom comes through that breach and we can't stop him, we're all in danger. _You're_ in danger."

"But Cisco's your main concern, right?"

Harry starts to say something, stops, scrubs his hand across his jaw. "Does that bother you?"

Jesse hesitates. "Dad, I know I wasn't very supportive at first -"

"Not very -?" Harry can hardly believe his ears. "Jesse, you told me I had to choose between you! You said no way would you ever -"

"Okay, okay!" Jesse holds her hands up in surrender. "I was wrong." She bites her lip. "Guess it took living independently for a while to make me see things in perspective. And maybe my roomie helped, too. Made me see I was being - childish."

Harry pulls his daughter to him in a one-armed hug, kisses the top of her head. "You'll always be my Jesse Quick, honey."

Jesse smiles. "Uh, Dad? What happens after we defeat Zoom?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, you have Cisco. But my friends? They're all back home on our Earth. I guess what I'm trying to say is, you know, when this is all over, I'm gonna go back home to live my life. But if you need to stay here so that you can live yours again, I get that." She steps back, looks up at Harry. "Or would Cisco move to our Earth?" She squeezes her father's hand. "I want you to be happy, Dad."

Harry grimaces. "Let's not tempt fate, huh? Time to discuss plans once we have Cisco back safe."

* * *

Barry helps Henry load the last of his things into his car. Henry looks back at the cabin, shakes his head.

"It's been peaceful, way out here in the woods. Quiet. Nobody bothering me." He slams his car trunk shut. "But now, I'm ready to move on. Back to the city. To be with my son." And, smiling at Barry, he gets into the driver's seat. "Sure you don't wanna run on ahead, Flash?"

Barry shakes his head, grins, gets in beside him. “Nah, I'm good. Be great to hang out with you a while longer before we get back. Talk things over.”

Henry pulls out onto the rutted track through the forest, glances sideways at his son. "What's on your mind, Slugger?"

Barry's silent for a long moment; when he does speak, the subject comes as a surprise to Henry, who's been expecting more angst about Barry's failure to protect Cisco.

"It's - it's about my mom."

Henry closes his eyes briefly. "Yes?"

Barry stares straight ahead at the forest track; it seems easier, somehow, to open his heart to his dad like this, rather than face to face. 

"I've never really come to terms with her death." Barry's voice is low, and rough with emotion. "That - that's probably why I don't visit her grave." He wipes his hand across his eyes. "And - I had a chance to save her. You know what I chose."

Henry Allen's heart aches for his son. His voice gentle, he asks, "And are you at peace with that decision, Barry?"

"At peace!" Barry's voice breaks. "How could someone ever be _at peace_ with letting his mother die? Deciding that his life was more valuable than hers?"

Henry takes a hand from the steering wheel, grips Barry's arm. "Oh, son. Do you really think your mother would've wanted you to die for her? And all the people the Flash saved as a result of that decision, what about them? Don't their lives have value, too?"

Barry nods, gulps. "Yeah. It's just - I miss her - _so much_..."

"I do too, son," Henry says quietly. "Not a day goes by, but I think of her. But I do know this. She would be so proud of you, of what you've become. Just as I am."

Barry turns his head towards his father, opens his mouth to speak. But before he can say anything, the car enters a zone of cell phone coverage.

And Barry's mobile lights up like a Christmas tree with a cluster of missed calls from Harrison Wells.

* * *

"Here. No, a bit further to your left. Yeah. That's it." Harry glances from Cisco's trans-dimensional energy detector to the life-size cardboard cutouts of Hunter Zolomon's parents which Jesse and Caitlin are manouevering into postition.

Jesse steps back, dusts her hands together, looks at the cutouts with approval. "Lifelike."

Caitlin nods. "Yes. And they'll catch his eye as soon as he comes through the breach."

"That's right, Snow. According to this detector, the trans-d energy reaches a maximum round about - _here_." Harry stabs his finger towards a point forming the apex of a triangle, with the cutouts of Hunter's parents at its base points. He raises an eyebrow at Caitlin. "Did you bring that V9?"

She nods towards her medicase on a nearby hospital bed, grimaces. "In there. But, Harry, it's -"

"Too dangerous, blah blah blah," interrupts Harry. "I know. I'll only use it if -"

"If what?" asks Jesse, frowning.

Harry glances at his phone: still no word from Barry. "If Allen doesn't get here in time."

"He does know where to come, right?"

"I've left him voicemail messages _and_ texts. But -"

Harry's voice breaks off; he turns hopefully towards the opening door. But the man who enters isn't Barry Allen, but Joe West.

"No Barry yet, huh?" he asks, slinging a heavy case onto a bed, clicking back the locks and opening it up to reveal an array of weaponry. He takes out a rifle loaded with tranquilliser darts, and Cisco's anti-metahuman invention - the Boot - and begins to check them over.

Harry glances around the room, checking their preparations. The lifesize cutouts of Hunter's parents. The V9. The Boot. Tranq dart guns. His own laser weapon. The only thing missing is Barry Allen, and it's anybody's guess whether the Flash will get here before Cisco opens the breach for Zoom. Harry can only hope and pray.

And wait...


	32. Chapter 32

"How did they know about my parents?" Zoom, clearly shaken, is pacing up and down his lair. "How _could_ they know?"

Cisco, shackled to a cot, watches him pace and muses over the events of the past hour.

He'd been cautiously optimistic to start with, patting himself on the back because he'd managed to stall Zoom until that afternoon to fit in with Harry's plans. And as the first thing he saw when he re-opened the breach was Harry himself, it seemed his confidence was justified. Especially when Zoom, stepping arrogantly through into Earth-1's abandoned children's hospital, suddenly faltered and turned his head from side to side. Cisco, following him through the breach, saw what had caught his attention: two life-size cardboard cut-outs, a man and a woman. Beyond them, Joe and Harry were raising their rifles.

Then everything was confusion: people shouting, running around, firing weapons - but, Cisco realised with an icy feeling in the pit of his stomach, no Barry. No Flash.

Zoom seemed to realise it too, and snapped out of his frozen state, but not before he'd been hit with a tranq dart and The Boot. Snarling with rage, plucking out the dart, he lurched forward, only to be hit square in the chest by Harry, firing his laser rifle from the hip in a diving fall. Zoom was hurled backwards through the breach, but - Cisco reflects ruefully - not before he'd snagged Cisco's arm and dragged him along too.

Cisco comes back to the present with a start; Zoom's ugly black mask is thrust into his face, Zoom's coal-black eyes are boring into his. 

"How did they know?" Zoom repeats, his voice full of menace. "How did they know about my parents?"

Cisco shrugs, refusing to be intimidated. "Well, they know you're Jay Garrick."

At this Zoom pushes his mask back, revealing Jay's familiar features. "How?" he snarls.

"I vibed on that helmet of yours."

Jay frowns, deep in thought. Then he snaps his fingers. "Caitlin!" he declares. "I told her my Earth-1 doppelganger was Hunter Zolomon."

Now it's Cisco's turn to be puzzled. "Who's Hunter Zolomon?"

Jay grins maniacally, thumps himself on the chest. "Me."

Since Cisco still looks puzzled, he adds with a mock bow: "Hunter Zolomon, Earth-2 serial killer, at your service."

As Cisco stares at him in horror, he goes on, "You know, I've always measured my success by counting the number of victims I've had. But now I think I'm going to start counting the number of Earths I conquer instead." At these words Cisco's suddenly struck by a chilling vibe: birds fall dead from the sky, buildings collapse, the whole of Earth-2 seems to be splitting apart. His eyes wide and unfocussed, he groans aloud.

"Tell me I didn't just vibe the future. Please tell me I did not just see the end of the world!"

* * *

Barry feels so guilty about arriving too late to join in the attempt to take down Zoom, he thinks that everyone at S.T.A.R. Labs is blaming him. In the case of Harry Wells, of course, he's right. So it comes almost as a relief when he gets an alert that Zoom is waiting for him in the CCPD building.

He arrives to find Jay - he still thinks of the guy as Jay - examining scene-of-crime photographs from Nora Allen's murder.

Jay muses aloud, "You know, I never saw the crime photos of _my_ mother's murder." He shrugs. "Well, I guess I didn't need to. I had a ringside seat while you got whisked away. Too delicate, I suppose." He turns from the murder board, looks broodingly at Barry. "Eh, Flash?"

Barry glares at him. "I know you didn't call me up here just to banter. Let's finish this. Right now."

Jay chuckles. "Actually, I did. I called you up here to say I'm not alone here. I brought a whole army of metahumans through the breach with me, and they're out there in Central City right now, doing my will."

Barry glances apprehensively towards the window.

Jay sneers at him. "You can't go running from one meta to the next, Flash. Around and around, like a dog chasing its tail."

Barry sticks out his chest, declares, "I'll do whatever it takes to stop you."

"If only that were good enough." Jay shakes his head. "Cause here's the thing. I know you. I know what's holding you back. You and me, we're really the same person."

Barry gives a scornful snort. "Yeah, you keep saying that, but it's not gonna make it true."

"You'll see. We are," Jay insists. He points to a news cutting pinned to the murder board. "Same tragic background. Same reason for running. Same desire to be the fastest, to be the best. The difference? You think your anger is dirty somehow. You want to be seen as pure, the hero." He leans forward, fixes Barry with a hypnotic stare. "Doesn't it get exhausting? Doesn't it get _exhausting_ , Barry! It was exhausting playing Jay, believe me."

"I'm not pretending." Barry's attention is distracted by a rumbling sound; he looks out of the window, sees a skyscraper beginning to collapse, presumably under attack by Zoom's metas.

Jay laughs. "Now if it were me, I'd let that building tumble without a second thought. But you, you'll never let that happen, will you? That's why I'm gonna beat you, Barry. Because you always have to be the hero. And while you're playing the good little boy?" 

He pauses dramatically.

"I'll be busy winning."

* * *

But, in the end, it doesn't prove too difficult to deal with Zoom's army of metas. On advice from Barry and Caitlin, Harry Wells reaches out to Hartley Rathaway, who keeps looking at him as if he's seen a ghost, but nevertheless comes up with a kind of dimensional tuning fork to exploit the difference in frequency between Earth-1 and Earth-2. Using this, Wells rigs up a device to send out a pulse tuned to Earth-2; Barry zips round and round Central City creating a barrier which the pulse bounces off, splitting and colliding with itself over and over again. When it hits anyone from Earth-2 it immediately disrupts their nervous system - and wham, bam! - the invading metas are toast.

Joe's so delighted he decides to throw a party to celebrate their victory, his high spirits only slightly dampened by the fact that Zoom himself succeeded in escaping back to Earth-2. They gather at his house: Joe himself, Wally, Iris, Barry, Henry, Jesse, Caitllin. Even Tina McGee is there, bemoaning the theft of some vital research from her Mercury Labs. There are two noticeable absences - Cisco, still held prisoner by Zoom, and Harry Wells. Harry'd engineered protective headphones to stop himself and Jesse falling victim to the disruptive energy pulse, but when hers failed he'd given her his, with predictable results, and he's now holed up in S.T.A.R. Labs, recovering.

Joe raises his glass in a toast. "To family."

"To family!" the others echo. Henry's eyes meet Barry's, father and son smile warmly at each other.

Iris begins ladling out soup. "Let's eat."

But the happy occasion is disrupted; with a sizzle of blue lightning, Zoom's suddenly in the room. Grabbing Henry Allen by the throat, he fixes Barry with a dark stare.

"Our story continues, Flash."

And with that he's gone, taking Henry with him. Barry streaks off in hot pursuit, chasing him through the streets of Central City to his destination, which Barry recognises with a sick sense of inevitability: the Allen family home, scene of his mother's murder, where his life changed forever.

He rushes inside. "Dad?"

Henry's pinioned from behind by Zoom, who's pushed back his mask to show Jay's face. He smirks evilly at Barry. "It's poetic, returning to your childhood home."

"Jay." Barry holds his hands out, pleading. "Don't do this. I'm begging you! Take me. Kill me instead."

Henry Allen looks pitifully at his son. "No!"

A pained grimace crosses Jay's face. "You still won't believe that you and I are the same -"

"Barry, look at me, son."

"- so I'm gonna have to _make_ you believe me."

"Whatever happens," Henry says steadily, "you have made me the happiest father -"

"Dad!"

Jay's snarling with rage. "This time, you're gonna watch your parent die - just like I did -"

"No! No!"

"- and this is what's gonna make you just like me!"

"Your mother and I love -"

With a howl of hatred, Jay thrusts his vibrating hand right through Henry's body. Barry watches in stunned disbelief as it emerges from his father's chest. His last words cut brutally short, Henry collapses to the floor.

Barry sinks to his knees beside him, his face wet with tears.


	33. Chapter 33

The rain pours down: cold, relentless, mingling with the tears on Barry's face as he stands at the graveside. His friends are at his father's funeral with him - Joe, Iris, Wally, Caitlin. And Harry, sharing his umbrella with Jesse, his camouflaging dark glasses incongruous in the murk.

The pastor speaks his final words, Henry Allen's coffin is lowered into the ground. Barry, too choked to speak, leaves it to Joe to give a brief eulogy.

"Henry Allen," begins Joe. "Henry suffered two great losses in his life. He lost his wife, Nora, and he lost Barry. He suffered guilt, embarrassment, ridicule, shame, and everything that comes with being blamed for a crime he didn't commit. Henry Allen was proof that love can get you through the darkest of days, and that love will keep him alive in all of our hearts."

Everyone bows their head. Finally, Barry places a single red rose the coffin lid, swears vengeance on Zoom in a voice shaken by hatred. Joe grips his arm, leads him away, and they all go back to Joe's for Henry Allen's wake. But Barry has no appetite for the food which Iris and Joe have prepared. His friends express their sympathy, but it seems they all have their own preoccupations - Wally, still amazed by the discovery that Barry is in fact The Flash; Harry, who Barry soon realises is much more concerned about Cisco's fate than what's just happened to Barry's father.

Only Iris seems to understand what he's going through. Stifled by the atmosphere in the house, Barry slips outside to sit on the steps with her, brooding over his loss.

And it's there that Zoom finds him, taunts him, lays down his extraordinary proposal.

A race between himself and Barry. To settle once for all which of them is the fastest man alive.

Of course, Barry refuses. But Zoom's comeback is immediate: "In that case, your father won't be the only person you love that I'll take from you. Think about it, Flash. I'll be waiting."

And with these chilling words, he's gone.

* * *

"So Zoom wants to race you?"

They're all gathered in the S.T.A.R. Labs cortex, listening to Barry describe Zoom's unexpected challenge.

Iris is sceptical. "Why would we trust him?"

Barry shrugs helplessly. "He _says_ he just wants to race."

Joe's sceptical too. "That can't be everything he wants."

"It's not." Harry looks up from the schematic he's been studying on the screen in front of him. "This Magnetar that's been developed by Mercury Labs - the one Dr McGee said was stolen? Turns out it can act as a pulsar."

The others look blank. Iris speaks for them all when she asks "What's a pulsar?"

"It's a power amplifier with a highly magnetized, dense rotating core that can be easily weaponized."

As Harry continues scrolling through the information he's hacked from Mercury Labs, his apprehension grows. This device in the wrong hands - and Zoom's sure are the wrong hands - could destroy every Earth in the multiverse. They have to stop him. It's not just a question, now, of rescuing Cisco. The fate of the multiverse depends on their stopping Zoom. Harry's heart stutters with the realisation that he might die without ever seeing Cisco again.

"Not gonna happen," he rasps aloud.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he remembers his daughter telling him, "Two men can get married on this Earth, Dad."

Harry clenches his fist. If they get through this - if they succeed in defeating Zoom - he's gonna ask Cisco to marry him. He stares, unseeing, at the screens displaying dire predictions of what the Magnetar can do, imagines holding Cisco in his arms, plunging deep...

"How's he gonna power that thing?" Joe is also staring at the screens.

"Me." Barry's voice is bleak. "That's why he wants to race. My speed is what's gonna power the Magnetar."

"Both your speeds," corrects Harry, snapping back from his vision of fucking Cisco. 

Barry's mind is made up. "Then I have to race him. And I have to win."

It's not that simple, however. After hearing Barry rave to Joe about how much he hates Zoom, how he wants to make him suffer, how he wants to kill him, Harry reluctantly agrees that, in this frame of mind, Barry can't be allowed to take Zoom on. Because, in this frame of mind, he'll lose.

So with a heavy heart, Harry joins the others in ganging up on Barry, sedating him with a tranq dart, locking him in the pipeline. Maybe there he'll calm down, get his head together, focus. Because, if he doesn't? They've already lost.

* * *

Harry sleeps at Cisco's apartment that night, hoping the familiar surroundings will help his lover contact him again in one of his vibes. He's longing for reassurance that Cisco's okay.

The vibe, when it comes, is anything but reassuring. Cisco's chained to something, his face is bruised, his eyes wide and shocky. He holds one manacled hand out towards Harry, mutely appealing. Harry's out of bed in an instant, dragging on his clothes.

"Cisco! What's he doing do you? How can I -"

Cisco interrupts him. "Get Barry here. Now. Or Jay's gonna kill me."

"Where's _here_?"

"Industrial park on Leawood. Here on Earth-1. Hurry, man. The dude's insane."

Harry finishes scrambling into his clothes, grabs his laser rifle. "On my way."

"You gotta bring Barry!"

Harry hesitates, breathing hard. Will Barry be able to focus, to put his hatred aside? But he has no choice; Barry is the only chance they've got. "I'll bring him. And, Cisco? I love you."

He doesn't know if Cisco's heard this last, the vision's already fading as he says it, but if Barry comes through for them, he'll have plenty of opportunities to say it again. 

If.

But when Harry reaches S.T.A.R. Labs and goes down into the pipeline, his heart sinks; Barry isn't looking any too calm. He glares at Harry through the thick glass. Even though it's speedster-proof and Barry knows it, he's still hammering at it with his fists. 

"Barry, I'm gonna let you out. It's the only way to save Cisco. But you gotta promise me to stay calm. Don't let Zoom get into your head, or you'll lose."

Barry nods, waits impatiently while Harry opens his cell. "Where's Zoom?" he demands.

"Before I tell you, you gotta promise -"

"Okay, okay. I promise."

Harry's still unsure, but he has to take the risk, and moments later they're standing below a ferris-wheel-type construction. Harry lets out a low exclamation as he sees Cisco chained to a railing at its base.

Zoom steps out of the shadows. "Ready to race, Flash?"

"Free Cisco first."

"Nope. _After_ we race."

Barry has no choice but to agree. He listens impatiently as Zoom lays down the conditions for the race - 500 laps around the inside of the loop will generate enough energy to power the Magnetar to do its deadly work; in order to win, Barry must stop Zoom before that happens - then nods a curt agreement.

The race is on.


	34. Chapter 34

They glare at each other, pull their cowls firmly down over their faces, and they are away, racing around the loop to determine the fate of the multiverse: Hunter Zolomon and Barry Allen, Zoom versus The Flash.

Watching, mesmerised, Harry catches the exact moment when the Magnetar powers up - Zoom lied, it took nothing like 500 laps - and groans in despair as a giant pulse lances skyward, ready to shatter worlds. Barry also sees it, and takes a reckless decision. Putting on a frantic burst of speed he goes back a second in time, and the watchers below suddenly see two Barry Allens, running side by side.

"A time remnant!" gasps Harry. "He's created a time remnant!"

The two Barrys part with a nod; Harry isn't sure which one frees Cisco, he's too busy racing towards him. The next minute he has his lover firmly in his arms, buries his face in his hair, growls endearments.

They hug each other tightly, not knowing if this moment may be their last. When next they take notice of their surroundings, Barry and Zoom are fighting on the ground, while Barry's time remnant runs at ever increasing speed around the base of the loop.

"What's he doing?" Cisco has never seen Barry run so fast, surely this speed is unsustainable?

Harry frowns, puzzled, then snaps his fingers in sudden enlightenment. "He's creating a second pulse - out of phase with the first -"

"- to cancel it out!" they chorus, as light dawns on Cisco, too. "But -" adds Cisco, "- his body can't handle that speed! What's gonna happen to him?"

Harry's face is grave. "He'll die."

Even as he speaks the time remnant's body is beginning to disintegrate, soon it's completely gone. But his work is complete: a second pulse shoots upwards, obliterating the first. The multiverse is safe. Seeing this, Zoom lets out a howl of frustration and turns on Barry with renewed fury. They chase one another up and down the scaffolding, along pipes and ledges, finally hurtling to the ground, where Barry succeeds in gaining the upper hand.

"You're a hero, Barry," gasps Zoom, eyeing Barry's menacingly vibrating hand. "You couldn't kill me before. You won't kill me now."

Barry looks past Zoom to the Time Wraiths swooping down towards them. As he'd hoped, his breach of their rules in creating the time remnant has drawn them out of the Speed Force; also, they are far more upset with Zoom than they are with him, they're reaching out for him already.

"I don't have to."

And he watches in grim satisfaction as Zoom is seized by the Time Wraiths and borne, screaming, away.

* * *

Later, back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Harry and Cisco can't keep their eyes - or their hands - off each other. Even when Jesse comes into the Cortex, yawning and rubbing her eyes, Harry doesn't let go of Cisco's hand.

"Ew, Dad, get a room!" she protests, then does a double take. " _Cisco_? You're safe! What happened?"

Harry quickly fills her in on the details of Barry's triumph, then has to go over it all again when Caitlin arrives, accompanied by Joe and Wally.

"But where _is_ Barry?" asks Caitlin.

"I opened a breach for him to go through to Earth-2," explains Cisco, "he's determined to rescue that guy in the iron mask that Jay - Zoom - was keeping prisoner."

In fact Barry is successful in his mission, and it's not long before he returns to S.T.A.R. Labs, bringing the mystery man with him.

"Well done, Bar!" exclaims Joe. "But how we gonna get that mask offa him?"

"I wondered about using my speed," replies Barry, vibrating his hand to show what he means, "but I don't wanna risk hurting him."

"It's okay, we can handle this," Harry says, leading the mystery guy over to his workbench. "Pass me a screwdriver, Cisco." As Cisco rummages in the toolbox, he goes on, "You know what? In battle, choose your weapon wisely. All right? Some people choose a gun. I choose a Phillips-head screwdriver."

"Oh, oh, I'm sorry. You're so particular." Cisco drops the screwdriver he's holding, fishes out another one. 

Harry grabs it from him. "Have you ever worked with a tool before?" 

"I'm working with one now," mutters Cisco.

Harry raises an eyebrow and murmurs, so quietly that only Cisco can hear him, "And I'm gonna be working _you_ with _my_ tool tonight."

Barry wonders why Cisco's blushing, then every other thought is driven from his head as the mask finally comes free, revealing the face of Henry Allen.

* * *

"It sure hit Barry hard, seeing the real Jay Garrick," Cisco says thoughtfully, closing the door of his apartment behind himself and Harry that night. "And how crazy is it, Henry Allen's doppelganger from yet another Earth being a speedster hero!"

"Yeah, crazy." Harry isn't really interested in the real Jay Garrick at the moment. Taking his lover in his arms, he growls, "Never mind about them. I wanna talk about us."

But any talking has to wait until he's given Cisco a long, passionate kiss.

"Mmmm," Cisco purrs happily as soon as he can speak. "Oh, _yeah_. I was so afraid - when Zoom took me - I'd never see you again."

"Me too." Harry's now busy peeling off Cisco's Big Bang Theory t-shirt, undoing the snap on his jeans. "Come into the bedroom, show me how much you missed me."

Harry soon gets them both naked on the bed; he can see from Cisco's erection that he's just as eager as he is himself.

"Lube?" Harry's voice is thick, urgent.

"Drawer," gasps Cisco - Harry's hands are all over him, he can't think straight. He nods towards the bedside cabinet.

Harry reaches over him; a quick search and a few swear words later, he gives an "ah" of satisfaction and begins liberally coating his fingers with lube. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you," he croons, parting Cisco's buttocks and slipping his finger inside.

Cisco moans and almost passes out as Harry's finger unerringly finds his prostate. He could swear he saw stars.

"Wow! What was _that_? Did you just give me a butt-gasm, Harry?"

"Gonna feel even better when I do that with my dick." He holds his and Cisco's cocks together, gives them a little shake. "But first, I gotta ask you something."

Cisco catches his breath. Harry sounds so serious... and the way he's looking at him... "What, Harry?"

Harry gulps, gives Cisco's cock a rough squeeze. "Will you marry me?"

Cisco's gobsmacked; he wasn't expecting this. But Harry's starting to look worried, he has to answer him. "Yes! Oh, wow, _yes_ , Harry, my -" His words are muffled by the urgent kiss Harry gives him.

"I love you, I never wanna lose you." Harry's hands roam knowingly over Cisco's body. "I'm gonna show you how much you mean to me." And he proceeds to do just that.

Afterwards, as they lie in each others' arms, sweaty, sticky and sated, Cisco remembers his concerns over Barry. "We should check Barry out," he murmurs. "He was so broke up by everything that's happened - and then seeing his dad's doppelganger - I'm worried he might do something stupid."

"Mmmm," replies Harry. "Yeah, we must. Tomorrow." He gives Cisco a sleepy kiss.

Cisco puts aside a vague, uneasy feeling that Barry may need help _now_ , and returns Harry's kiss.

"Okay. Tomorrow."

The End


End file.
